LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

Class     '%'!^^ 


Life  and  Letters 

of 

Sir  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb 


CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS   WAREHOUSE, 

C.   F.  CLAY,  Manager. 

HOtttroii:    FETTER  LANE,   E.G. 

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ILetpjtg:   F.  A.  BROCKHAUS. 

i^eh)  lork:  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS. 

^ombag  antj  Calcutta:    MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd. 


[A//  Rights  reserved. '\ 


UNIVERSIT 

OF 


Life    and    Letters 

of 

Sir  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb 

O.M.,   Litt.D. 

by  his  wife 
Caroline   Jebb 


With  a  Chapter  on  Sir  Richard  Jebb  as  Scholar 
and  Critic  by  Dr  A.  W.  Verrall 


OF 


.7 


Cambridge : 

at  the  University  Press 

1907 


GENERAL 


Cambritifie : 

PRINTED    BY  JOHN    CLAY,    M.A, 
AT  THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


PREFACE 


MY  work  In  preparing  this  book  was  made 
unexpectedly  easy.  My  husband  in  the 
latter  half  of  his  life  collected  a  series  of  volumes 
which  he  named  Servanda — scrap-books  In  which 
were  pasted  letters,  reviews,  extracts  from  speeches 
and  newspaper  cuttings — matter  of  any  kind  that  he 
wished  to  preserve.  Here  ready  to  my  hand  was 
evidence  sufficient  of  the  interests  and  occupations 
of  his  full  and  busy  life — if  only  I  could  use  it 
aright.  But  selection  from  such  a  mass  of  material 
was  difficult  and  I  am  haunted  by  the  fear  that 
what  was  put  aside  may  in  part  be  of  more  general 
Interest  than  that  given  here.  I  could  only  use  my 
own  judgment,  bearing  always  in  mind  that  to  tell 
the  whole  tends  to  tediousness.  The  many  family 
letters  which  Mr  Heneage  J  ebb  and  Mrs  Arthur 
J  ebb  placed  unreservedly  at  my  disposal  gave  the 
story  of  his  earlier  years,  and  a  little  diary  which  he 
kept  chiefly  for  engagements — in  an  unbroken  series 
from  1877  to  1905 — has  been  invaluable  to  me  in 
furnishing  dates  for  our  many  journeys  together  and 
my  own  memories. 


VI  Preface 

It  now  remains  my  pleasant  duty  to  thank 
warmly  Mr  J.  D.  Duff  of  Trinity,  who  has  most 
kindly  and  carefully  gone  through  my  proofs  with 
me  page  by  page,  giving  me  much  friendly  and 
valued  criticism,  and  Mr  S.  H.  Butcher,  who  after 
reading  the  first  type-written  chapters  gave  me 
encouragement  to  go  on  with  the  more  difficult  part. 

Thanks  are  also  due  to  the  Rev.  Dr  Denney 
and  Mr  R.  P.  G.  Williamson  for  their  interesting 
recollections  of  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  as  a  teacher,  and 
to  the  many  friends  who  sent  me  letters.  Whether 
or  not  these  could  be  fitted  into  the  fabric  of  the 
book,  it  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  read  them. 

And  I  wish  also  to  thank  Mr  R.  T.  Wright  for 
the  interest  he  has  shown  in  the  progress  of  the 
book  and  for  his  advice  on  technical  points.  Indeed 
all  the  officials  at  the  Pitt  Press  have  been  most 
patient  with  my  ignorance  which  must  often  have 
given  them  needless  trouble. 

For  nothing  in  the  Life  and  Letters  is  Dr  Verrall 
responsible.  He  has  not  yet  seen  them.  I  felt  it 
the  very  greatest  kindness  and  a  great  point  gained 
when  he  consented  to  write  the  chapter  on  my 
husband's  work  as  critic  and  scholar. 

CAROLINE   JEBB. 
Springfield, 
Cambridge. 

September^   1907. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Family  History i 

II.  1841 — 1858:   Childhood  and  School  Days     ...        9 

III.  1858— 1862 :   Undergraduate  Years         .        .    '    .        .20 

IV.  1862— 1864  :   Fellowship  and  College  Work. — Tour  in 

Egypt 56 

V.  1865— 1870:   Diary  and  Letters. — Public  Oratorship    .       75 

VI.  1871— 1872  :   Letters  to  C.  L.  S 103 

VII.  1872 — 1874:  Cambridge  Life  and  Work        .        .        .     143 

VIII.  1874— 1878 :  Marriage.— Election  to  Glasgow  Chair. 
Inaugural  Address.  Letters  by  Rev.  Dr  Denney, 
and  Mr  R.  P.  G.  Williamson,  M.A.— Vibit  to  Italy  and 
Greece. — Illness 177 

IX.  1878— 1880  :     British     School     at     Athens.       Hellenic 

Society. — Visit  to  Paris. — Challenge  by  Dr  Blackie. 

— Visit  to  Venice 211 

X.  1881— 1883  :  Springfield. —Bentley. — Attack  on  Glasgow 

University. — The  Troad. — School  at  Athens        .        .     230 

XI.  1883 — 1889  :   Visit   to  America. — Professor   Fawcett. — 

Death  of  Mr  Robert   J  ebb. — Royal  Academy. — Ode 

to  Bologna. — Resignation  of  Greek  Chair  in  Glasgow.     250 

XII.  1889 — 1894  :     Regius    Professor    of    Greek    at    Cam- 

bridge. —  Rede    Lecture.  —  Election    to    Parliament. 
First   Speech 270 


viii  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  1894— 1896  :    The    Welsh    Church    Disestablishment 

Bill.     Speech. — Illness 290 

XIV.  1896 — 1898  :   Conference  on  Secondary  Education. — 

Visit  to  the  Riviera. — Voluntary  Schools'  Grant 
Bill.  Sir  John  Gorst's  Education  Bill.  Burial 
Grounds  Committee 313 

XV.  1898— 1900:  Death  of  Mr  Gladstone.— Speech  on  the 

Rating  of  Clergymen. — Letters. — Romanes  Lecture. 

— War.     Consultation's  Committee. — Knighthood    .     330 

XVI.  1900 — 1901  :    Re-election. — Death    of    the    Queen. — 

Deputation  to  Mr  Balfour. — Irish  University  Com- 
mission         357 

XVII.  1902— 1903  :     British     Academy. — Education      Bill. — 

Tercentenary  of  Bodleian  Library. — Trustee  of 
British  Museum. — Memorial  Cloister  at  Charter- 
house   372 

XVIII.  1904— 1905  :    Letters.— Order    of    Merit.— Defeat    of 

Government 398 

XIX.       1905 :   Visit  to  South  Africa.— Last  Illness         .        .     418 


The  Scholar  and  Critic.     By  A.  W.  Verrall      .         .         .        .427 


Index 489 


Portrait  of  Sir  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb     .         .         .    Frontispiece 


/    >^'  OF  THE     ^ 

f  UNIVERSITY 

\  OF 


CHAPTER    I. 

FAMILY   HISTORY. 

Richard  Claverhouse  J  ebb  was  born  on  the 
27th  of  August,  1 84 1,  at  Dundee  In  the  house  of  his 
grandfather  the  Dean  of  Brechin,  where  his  parents 
were  then  upon  a  visit.  He  came  of  gentle  stock 
on  both  sides.  The  J  ebbs  of  Woodborough  in 
Nottinghamshire  were  prominent  from  the  begin- 
ning of  Queen  EHzabeth's  reign.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  a  part  of  the  family  settled 
at  Mansfield,  in  the  same  county,  where  they  soon 
became  noted  for  eminence  in  literary  work.  "  Few 
families,"  says  Mr  Nichols  in  his  Literary  Anec- 
dotes, ''  have  produced  more  persons  connected  with 
the  literary  history  of  the  eighteenth  century."  Short 
lives  of  these  are  given  in  Maunders  Biographical 
Dictionary,  and  a  Memoir  of  Dr  John  Jebb\  F.R.S., 

^  Dr  John  Jebb  was  celebrated  for  the  remarkable  liberality  of 
his  political  and  religious  opinions,  and  was  fortunate  in  having  a 
wife  like-minded  with  himself,  to  judge  from  a  biographical  notice 
of  her  published  at  her  death  in  181 2.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  John  Torkington  and  Lady  Dorothy  Sherard  (daughter 
of  the  second  Earl  of  Harborough).  The  young  couple  met  at  a 
ball  in  Huntingdon  and  "took  no  long  time  to  discover  that 

J.   M.  I 


2  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

F.S.A.,  of  Peterhouse,  Cambridge,  whom  the  Bishop 
of  Limerick  characterized  as  his  very  honest  and 
able  but  wrongheaded  and  heretical  cousin,  is 
prefixed  to  a  collection  of  his  miscellaneous  works. 

Samuel  Jebb,  the  grandfather  of  Dr  John  Jebb, 
and  of  Sir  Richard  Jebb,  Bart.,  Physician  to 
George  III,  was  also  the  direct  ancestor  of  Richard 
Claverhouse  Jebb,  the  subject  of  these  memoirs. 
He  was  born  in  1670,  and  married  in  1690  Elizabeth, 
only  daughter  of  Richard  Gilliver,  Esq.,  of  Bamfield, 
Yorkshire,  whose  wife  was  Amelia  de  Witt,  daughter 
of  Jacob  de  Witt,  Burgomaster  of  Dort,  and  sister 
of  John  de  Witt,  the  Grand  Pensionary  of  Holland, 
and  of  Cornelius  de  Witt,  Admiral  of  the  Fleet,  who 
were  murdered  on  the  14th  of  August,  1672.  On 
account  of  the  disturbances  of  the  time,  Jacob  de  Witt 
left  Holland  during  the  lifetime  of  his  famous  sons 
and  came  to  England.  He  undertook  to  drain  the 
Fens  of  Lincolnshire,  and  large  grants  were  assigned 
to  him  of  the  reclaimed  lands,  which,  on  account  of 
the  disorders  that  prevailed  during  the  Civil  Wars, 
were  lost  to  his  only  daughter  and  her  descendants. 

Happily  some  of  the  de  Witt  force  of  character 

their  hearts  and  understandings  were  formed  for  each  other." 
They  were  married  in  1764  and  came  to  live  in  Cambridge,  where 
Mrs  Jebb  soon  became  a  social  centre.  The  Memoir  says : — 
"She  was  listened  to  with  deference  and  attention  by  some  of  the 
most  eminent  characters.  Her  conversation  was  at  the  same 
time  spritely,  argumentative,  and  profound  ;  and  while  she  ex- 
pressed herself  fluently  on  all  occasions  her  language  was  equally 
happy  and  correct." — Memoirs  of  Mrs  John  Jebb  by  G.  W.  M. 
1812. 


Family  History  3 

was  Inherited  by  them.  Bishop  Jebb^  writes,  ''  They 
were  distinguished  by  their  strength  of  character,  in- 
dependence of  mind,  love  of  freedom,  and  indomitable 
ardour  in  all  their  pursuits.  With  strength  however," 
he  adds,  '*  weakness  was  sufficiently  mingled  ;  and 
prudence,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  was  by 
no  means  their  characteristic.  Some  of  them  were 
tolerably  successful  in  the  acquisition,  but  none  pro- 
ceeded to  the  accumulation,  of  the  goods  of  fortune. 
They  were  apt  to  spend  with  more  rapidity  than 
they  acquired  ;  and  many  of  them  were  liberal  in 
the  transactions,  and  almost  profuse  in  the  charities, 
of  life." 

Samuel  J  ebb  had  by  this  marriage  six  sons  and 
three  daughters.  The  eldest  son,  Richard,  went  to 
Ireland  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  where  he 
entered  into  business.  He  is  described  as  "a  man  of 
strong  sense  and  sound  principles,  hasty  in  temper, 
but  good-natured  and  benevolent  to  a  degree." 

This  Richard  J  ebb  married  in  1718  Mary, 
daughter  of  William  Stanley,  Esq.,  of  Lincolnshire, 
and  died  in  1761,  leaving  an  only  son,  John,  of  whom 
his  son,  Bishop  J  ebb,  writes,  ''  I  never  knew  a  more 
innocent  human  being,  an  Israelite  indeed  in  whom 
there  was  no  guile." 

John  Jebb  was  twice  married,  the  second  time  to 
Alicia  Forster,  a  beautiful  woman  to  judge  by  her 
portrait  now  at  Springfield,  Cambridge.  By  this 
marriage  he  had  two  sons,  both  destined  to  be  men 
of  influence  on  their  time,  and  three  daughters. 
^  Life  of  Bishop  Jebb  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster. 


4  Sir  Richard  Jebb 

Richard,  the  elder  son,  the  grandfather  of  Richard 
Claverhouse,  born  in  1766,  was  educated  at 
Drogheda,  and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
Having  come  into  a  property  as  the  heir  of  his  cousin 
Sir  Richard  Jebb,  Bart.,  he  went  to  the  Irish  bar  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two.  His  rise  was  rapid  in  his 
profession  ;  and  he  also  came  early  into  notice  by 
the  part  he  took  in  opposing  the  Union.  In  1799 
he  published  ''  A  Reply  to  a  Pamphlet  entitled 
*  Arguments  for  and  against  a  Union,'  "  which 
received  wide  recognition.  Lord  Glenbervie,  the 
successor  of  Lord  Castlereagh  in  the  Irish  Secretary- 
ship, cited  it  as  containing  all  the  arguments  of  real 
weight  against  the  Union  ;  "to  the  whole  of  which," 
he  said,  ''  he  felt  himself  to  be  replying  in  answering 
Mr  Jebb." 

The  Government  Richard  Jebb  had  opposed 
offered  him  a  seat  in  Parliament  which,  after  full 
consideration,  he  declined ;  nor  would  he  allow  him- 
self to  be  nominated  for  Drogheda,  though  much 
urged,  and  with  the  certainty  of  being  elected. 

The  younger  son  John,  after  a  distinguished 
career  at  College,  chose  the  Church  for  a  profession. 
He  at  once  became  noted  for  eloquence  as  a  preacher 
and  for  his  skill  in  public  discussions.  In  1806  he 
preached  the  Visitation  Sermon  at  Cashel,  and  was 
publicly  thanked  by  the  Archbishop,  While  he  was 
receiving  the  congratulations  of  his  friends,  the  Rev. 
Dr  Hare  startled  him  by  exclaiming,  **  I  give  you 
no  credit  for  that  Sermon  ;  you  stole  it.  Sir,  you  stole 
it."     The   astonished   preacher   said,   *'  May    I    ask 


Family  History  5 

from  what  source  ? "  when  Mr  Hare's  countenance 
relaxed,  and  he  answered  with  a  gentle  voice  and  a 
profound  bow  : — *'  From  your  own  life  and  conversa- 
tion\" 

John  Jebb  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Limerick  in 
1823.  His  first  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords — on 
the  Irish  Tithes  Commutation  Bill — lasted  three 
hours.  Mr  Wilberforce  declared  it  to  be  one  of  the 
ablest  speeches  ever  delivered  in  the  House.  Bishop 
Jebb  was  also  famous  for  his  learning,  his  many 
contributions  to  literature,  his  social  charm,  and, 
above  all,  for  the  beauty  of  his  life. 

Between  the  two  brothers  Richard  and  John, 
nine  years  apart  in  age,  the  closest  affection  existed. 
When  a  little  boy  John  was  struck  with  the  words 
Memento  Mori  on  a  tomb  at  Leixlip.  He  asked  his 
brother  to  translate  them,  and  then  to  write  them  in 
his  childish  album.  Richard  wrote  instead  Memento 
Mei.  "  From  that  hour  to  the  present,"  adds  the 
Bishop,  ''he  has  taken  special  care  that  the  impres- 
sion made  while  he  translated  these  words  should 
never  be  obliterated.  To  me  and  to  our  sisters  he 
has  been,  as  to  our  father  he  was  for  several  years, 
in  loco  parentis,  his  heart  and  house  ever  open  to  us, 
every  advantage  with  which  Providence  has  been 
pleased  to  favour  him  affectionately  shared  with  us. 
He  has  been  dealt  with  accordingly ; — blessed  with 
a  most  valuable  wife,  and  children  of  the  highest 
promise,  he  has  just  attained  (18 18)  a  Judge's  seat 
on  the  King's  Bench.  Nor  can  I  omit  that  he  has 
^  Life  of  Bishop  Jebb  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster. 


6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

risen  by  pure  merit ;  that  he  never  courted  business 
or  asked  for  office  ;  that  he  kept  most  delicately 
aloof  when  many  might  have  thought  him  to  blame 
in  not  putting  himself  forward." 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  give  here  a  passage 
from  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster's  Life  of  Bishop  J  ebb, 
the  less  so  that  many  of  the  characteristics  of 
this  Richard  J  ebb  and  his  brother  were  repeated  in 
their  descendants. 

"In  the  groundwork  of  their  characters — in- 
tegrity, candour,  generosity,  high-mindedness — never 
were  brethren  more  in  unity  ;  in  manner,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  were  of  perfectly  opposite  styles.  Both 
were  characteristically  modest  and  constitutionally 
shy  :  but  probably  owing  to  the  influence  of  their 
different  professions.  Bishop  Jebb's  native  modesty 
and  shyness  occasioned  a  degree  of  reserve  in  society 
which  his  brother's  daily  contact  with  life  enabled 
him  to  overcome.  Both  were  naturally  playful,  with 
a  vein  both  of  wit  and  humour :  but  the  Bishop's 
manner  though  cheerful  was  grave,  and  seldom 
relaxed  except  among  intimate  friends ;  while  his 
brother's  was  easy,  lively,  and  universally  pre- 
possessing." 

Who  that  knew  the  late  Sir  R.  C.  J  ebb  intimately 
will  not  recall  the  almost  boyish  playfulness  which 
made  him  in  his  own  family  and  with  intimate  friends 
such  a  delightful  companion  ? 

Richard  Jebb  married  in  1803  J^^^  Louisa  Finlay, 
a  daughter  of  John  Finlay,  Esq.,  of  Corkagh  in  the 
County  of  Dublin,  a  Member  of  the  last  Irish  Parlia- 


Family  History  7 

ment.  Bishop  Jebb  describes  her  as  ''uniting  a 
masculine  strength  of  mind  with  truly  feminine 
delicacy  and  tenderness  of  heart." 

Five  sons  and  one  daughter  were  born  of  this 
marriage.  The  eldest  son,  John,  entered  the  Church 
and  became  Rector  of  Peterstow  and  Canon  of 
Hereford ;  the  second  son,  Richard,  studied  law, 
and  was  for  many  years  Vicar-General  in  the  Isle 
of  Man  ;  the  third,  Robert,  went  to  the  Irish  bar. 

Robert  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  accomplish- 
ments ;  his  son  Richard  Claverhouse  always  spoke 
of  him  as  the  most  accomplished  person  he  had 
ever  known  ;  but  the  gentleness  and  innocence  of  his 
nature — inherited  from  his  grandfather — prevented 
him  from  winning  the  place  in  his  profession  to  which 
his  abilities  gave  him  a  right.  He  shrank  from  any 
appearance  of  striving  for  his  own  advantage.  A 
seat  on  the  Irish  Bench,  practically  promised  to  him, 
when  it  became  vacant,  was  given  to  another  with 
more  interest.  From  that  time  Robert  Jebb  retired 
from  active  life,  having  found  the  struggle  with  this 
"everlasting  flint,"  the  world,  too  hard  for  his 
gentle  spirit.  He  passed  his  quiet  days  in  the  study 
of  ancient  and  modern  literatures,  in  the  care  of  his 
beautiful  garden,  and  in  educating  his  children. 
Until  Richard  was  sent  to  school  at  the  age  of 
twelve  his  father  was  his  only  teacher. 

Robert  Jebb  married  in  August  1840  Emily 
Harriet,  third  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Heneage  Horsley, 
Dean  of  Brechin,  and  grand-daughter  of  Bishop 
Horsley  of  St  Asaph's.      The  Horsley  family  had 


8  Sir  Richard  Jebb 

long  been  established  in  Hertfordshire.  The  Bishop  s 
own  father,  John  Horsley,  became  Rector  of 
Thorley  in  1745,  receiving  about  the  same  time 
the  Rectory  of  Newington  Butts  in  Surrey.  He 
appears  to  have  had  a  higher  standard  of  clerical 
duty  than  was  common  at  the  time.  "  At  Thorley," 
says  the  late  Lord  Selborne,  "  he  resided  constantly, 
when  residence  was  not  enforced  as  it  is  at  present ; 
did  his  duty  as  long  as  he  was  able ;  and  was  a 
considerable  benefactor  to  the  parsonage."  His 
eldest  son  Samuel  (afterwards  Bishop  of  St  Asaph's) 
was  presented  to  the  living  of  Albury  in  Surrey, 
and  married  in  1774  Mary  Botham,  the  daughter  of 
the  late  Rector.  The  Albury  Register  states  that 
** Samuel  Horsley,  Clerk,  Doctor  of  Laws  in  this 
Parish,  Batchelor,  and  Mary  Botham  of  this  Parish, 
Spinster,  were  married  in  this  Church  by  License, 
this  13th  day  of  December,  1774,  by  John  Buckner, 
Curate  pro  hac  vice!'  Of  this  marriage  two  children 
were  born;  one  died  in  infancy;  the  other,  Heneage, 
afterwards  Dean  of  Brechin,  married  in  1801  Frances 
Emma  Bourke,  sister  of  Sir  Richard  Bourke  of 
Thornfields,  County  Limerick.  She  was  a  cousin 
of  Edmund  Burke,  and  it  was  at  Beaconsfield  that 
Heneage  Horsley  first  met  her. 

Dean  Horsley  died  on  October  6th,  1847,  leaving 
one  son,  Samuel  (the  "  Uncle  Sam"  of  the  letters), 
and  three  daughters,  Frances  Emma,  Eglantyne, 
and  Emily  Harriet ;  the  first  two  remained  un- 
married, Emily  Harriet  became  the  wife  of  Robert 
Jebb  and  the  mother  of  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb. 


CHAPTER    II. 

CHILDHOOD   AND   SCHOOL   DAYS.     1841— 1858. 

For  some  years,  while  Robert  J  ebb  was  still 
active  in  his  profession,  the  family  home  was  in 
Dublin.  Here  the  little  "  Dick  "  passed  his  early 
childhood  amid  surroundings  peculiarly  suited  to  his 
sensitive  affectionate  nature  and  quick  intellect.  Not 
only  his  parents  but  his  mother's  two  sisters,  Frances 
and  Eglantyne  Horsley,  found  in  the  eager,  beautiful 
boy  their  chief  interest  in  life.  Full  of  vitality  and 
intelligence  as  he  was,  even  his  faults  were  engaging. 
He  had  a  passionate  temper  as  quickly  allayed  as  it 
was  excited.  When  he  was  two  years  old  his  Aunt 
Eglantyne  offended  him  by  laughing  (as  he  thought) 
at  him.  Like  a  flash,  yet  gently,  his  hands  flew  to 
her  cap,  pulled  it  off  and  threw  it  on  the  floor. 
"Aunty  sorry,"  he  remarked  triumphantly;  adding 
the  instant  after,  ''  Dicky  sorry  too,"  as  he  burst  into 
tears  and  threw  his  arms  around  her  neck.  Miss 
Horsley  told  me  it  was  impossible  to  express  what 
a  delight  he  was  to  them  all.  Notwithstanding  his 
quick    temper,    he   was    a   very  good    child,   easily 


lO  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

governed  by  affection.  A  look  of  disapproval  from 
his  mother  made  him  miserable  :  to  disappoint  any- 
one who  loved  him  was  all  his  life  intolerable  to  him. 
**  Dick  sorry ;  forgive  your  Dick "  was  a  phrase 
not  confined  to  childhood.  He  was  also  naturally 
obedient  and  law-abiding,  with  a  respect  for  au- 
thority. 

If  affection  could  ever  spoil,  I  am  afraid  his 
adoring  ''Aunt  Fanny"  was  guilty.  He  had  a 
vivid  recollection  of  the  pastry-cook's  shop  to  which 
he  always  turned  her  steps  when  taken  out  for  a 
walk  by  her.  She  said  he  was  as  a  child  quite 
irresistible,  so  affectionate,  so  amusingly  coaxing : 
she  had  to  gratify  him.  Until  Miss  Horsley  died 
at  the  age  of  92,  he  remained  her  darling,  and  he 
gave  her  back  a  most  devoted  affection.  To  the 
very  last,  he  would  snatch  time  from  the  busiest 
season  to  visit  her,  at  least  once  a  year,  at  Bath. 
In  the  later  years  he  used  to  come  back  saddened 
at  seeing  her  so  aged  and  changing. 

One  of  his  pleasantest  recollections  of  the  home  in 
Dublin  was  a  pony  on  which  he  was  allowed  to  ride 
alone  in  the  Park.  His  mother  often  recalled  the 
picture  of  her  little  son,  his  beauty  heightened  by 
excitement,  his  large  blue  eyes  shining,  as  he  claimed 
her  sympathy  when  starting  for  a  ride.  His  sister 
remembers  that  an  old  gentleman,  who  lived  opposite, 
used  to  have  his  chair  wheeled  to.  the  window 
at  the  time  when  Dick  usually  returned  from  his 
ride,  in  order  that  he  might  watch  ''the  spirited  little 
fellow  dash  up  the  street,  jump  off,  throw  his  rein 


1847]  Childhood  and  School  Days  1 1 

over  the  rail,  and  running  up  the  steps,  reach  with 
difficulty  the  knocker  on  which  he  gave  a  resounding 
summons." 

His  first  letter,  written  on  ruled  paper  in  big 
letters  at  the  age  of  six,  to  his  uncle  John,  was  about 
this  pony. 

''  My  dear  Uncle, 

I  have  got  a  nice  set  of  tools  amongst  which 
there  is  a  saw  half  a  yard  long.  I  have  had  three 
falls  from  my  pony  so  I  suppose  I  shall  be  a  good 
rider  at  last  the  same  pony  I  had  in  the  Isle  of  Man 
is  to  be  sent  to  me  by  my  friend  Willie  Wynyard. 
Uncle  Sam  came  to  us  on  Sunday  he  is  to  stay 
with  us  till  Saturday  and  is  to  go  to  Uncle  Tom's 
wedding  and  I  am  to  go  too.  I  was  in  the  Kings- 
town Railway  the  other  day  with  Uncle  Tom  and 
the  Train  stopped  which  rather  alarmed  us  but  we 
found  out  at  last  that  they  had  lost  the  track  and 
soon  we  went  on  again  as  usual,  now  dear  Uncle 
John  I  must  bid  you  good  bye  with  love  and  a  kiss 
to  dear  Aunt  J  ebb  Believe  me  your  affectionate 
Nephew, 

R.  C.  Jebb 
Wednesday   loth  Nov^"  1847 
23  Temple  st." 

Dick  was  four  years  old  when  his  sister  Eglantyne 
was  born.  From  the  first,  her  coming  was  a  great 
delight  to  him,  and  all  through  his  life  the  close  tie 
between  them  was  a  source  of  happiness.     When 


12  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1850 

either  was  staying  at  Danesfort,  Killarney,  the  home 
of  their  uncle  Mr  Samuel  Horsley  and  his  two 
sisters,  and  a  second  home  to  the  J  ebb  children,  the 
correspondence  between  them  was  constant.  At 
first  '*  brother  Dick  "  printed  his  letters  in  large  type 
because  the  little  sister  could  only  read  print. 

About  five  years  later  the  family  was  completed 
by  the  birth  of  twins.  Mrs  Arthur  Jebb^  remembers 
well  an  evening  when  her  father  was  amusing  herself 
and  Dick  in  the  drawing-room.  He  had  not  long 
before  read  portions  of  the  Comedy  of  Errors  to 
Dick,  who  had  been  greatly  interested  and  wished 
much  to  see  the  play  acted.  When  the  door  opened 
to  admit  an  old  servant  who  announced  the  birth  of 
the  twins,  Dick  gleefully  exclaimed,  ''  Now  we  have 
the  two  Dromios  !  " 

As  one  of  the  twins  proved  delicate,  and  the  health 
of  the  other  children  seemed  to  flag  in  town,  it  was 
decided  to  make  a  move  into  the  country.  A  small 
house  was  bought  at  Killiney,  nine  miles  from  Dublin, 
and  the  family  went  there  in  1 850.  No  more  beautiful 
spot  could  have  been  found.  Killiney  Bay  has  been 
compared  to  the  Bay  of  Naples.  However  that  may 
be,  the  beauty  of  the  shore,  the  sea,  the  hills,  the 
woods  at  the  back,  were  never  failing  sources  of 
happiness  to  the  group  of  children  in  the  years  that 
followed.  His  sister  describes  it  as  '*  a  land  of  black- 
berries, cowslips,  and  primroses,  straggling  hedges 

^  Eglantyne  Jebb  married  in  187 1  Arthur  Trevor  Jebb  of  The 
Lyth,  Salop.  The  relationship,  if  any,  between  the  two  families 
was  never  traced,  though  they  used  the  same  crest. 


1853]  Childhood  and  School  Days  13 

and  wandering  footpaths.  At  that  time  the  houses 
were  few,  for  the  most  part  hidden  by  trees.  What 
a  delight  it  was  to  race  down  the  fields  and  find  our- 
selves on  the  open  shore  !  There  was  a  little  brook, 
the  Shanganagh,  where  we  made  dams  and  built 
fortifications ;  and  where,  a  little  later,  Dick  sailed  a 
whole  fleet  of  ships." 

With  this  world  of  delight  outside,  with  a  little 
printing-press  and  an  amateur  carpenter-shop  with 
its  turning-lathe  for  amusement  on  wet  days,  above 
all  with  a  father  who  could  do  such  wonderful  things, 
and  a  sympathetic,  devoted,  wise  mother,  no  wonder 
the  children  remembered  their  childhood  almost  as  a 
tale  of  fairyland. 

When  Dick  grew  older  he  had  regular  lessons 
from  his  father,  which  he  studied  with  the  thorough- 
ness so  characteristic  of  him.  The  set  task  was 
often  exceeded.  His  father,  who  used  to  see  his  work 
in  the  evenings  after  coming  from  his  Chambers, 
would  say,  "  But  you  cannot  have  done  all  that,"  to 
which  the  response  would  be  the  recitation  or  trans- 
lation of  the  whole.  The  pleasure  of  surprising  his 
father  by  his  diligence  was  a  sufficient  incentive  to 
industry. 

But  the  break  had  to  come.  In  his  childish 
journals  which  he  kept  carefully  for  two  years,  and 
which  record  the  adventures  of  many  kites  and  dearly 
loved  ships,  often  made  for  him  by  his  father  and 
anxiously  watched  on  their  voyages  by  both,  he 
writes  : 

''August    7th,    1853: — To-night,    papa    and    I 


14  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1853 

finished  our  studies  which,  for  upwards  of  four  years, 
have  been  successfully  continued. 


I  go  to  school  next  Wednesday. 
It  cannot  be  helped. 


August  loth,  1853.  O !  Miserrima  dies.  To- 
day I  go  to  St  Columba's  College,  Rathfarnham." 

Dick  was  not  at  first  happy  at  school ;  the  change 
from  home  was  too  great.  He  was  very  sensitive, 
was  accustomed  to  loving  sympathy  in  all  his  pursuits, 
perhaps  unaccustomed  to  criticism  or  censure.  The 
Headmaster  wrote  to  his  parents  that  it  surprised 
him  to  perceive  how  wretched  a  few  words  of  blame 
made  the  boy,  and  how  his  misery  lasted  for  days. 
He  sent  for  him  and  talked  to  him  seriously  on  the 
mistake  of  having  too  much  amour  propre.  ''  Fancy 
saying  that  to  a  sensitive  boy  of  twelve  !  as  if  I  could 
help  it,"  he  exclaimed,  in  telling  me  of  his  school 
days. 

All  through  the  year,  it  is  touching  to  see  how 
he  clings  to  the  thought  of  home,  how  he  counts  on 
his  mother's  weekly  visits,  calls  the  post  which  brings 
him  her  letters  the  ''event  of  the  day,"  marks  off 
each  week  till  the  holidays.  This  continues,  though 
he  quickly  grows  interested  in  his  work  and  the 
useful  spirit  of  emulation  comes  to  his  aid.  On 
September  nth,  1853,  he  writes  to  his  mother:  ''I 
got  a  great  piece  of  encouragement  last  night.    When 


1854]  Childhood  and  School  Days  15 

the  Warden  sent  for  me  I  went,  very  much  wonder- 
ing what  he  wanted  me  for.  He  was  settHng  some 
papers  as  I  came  to  him,  and  when  he  had  finished, 
he  took  me  by  the  arms  and  said,  'J ebb,  how  are 
you  getting  on?'  'Very  well,  thank  you,  Sir,'  said  I. 
He  said,  '  I  have  had  a  very  good  report  of  you 
from  Mr  Tuck  well,  and  he  says  you  are  industrious. 
I  am  very  well  satisfied  with  you.  If  I  take  no 
notice  of  a  boy,  it  is  not  because  I  am  not  satisfied 
with  him  ;  it  is  generally  the  reverse.  For  if  I  am 
not  satisfied  with  him  I  generally  do  notice  him.  I 
am  glad  to  see  that  you  have  boys  about  you  that 
will  keep  you  up  to  your  work.  And  remember, 
you  can  scarcely  be  called  placed.  You  have  to  find 
your  level,  which  you  will  do  at  the  next  examina- 
tion.    Well,  God  bless  you.     You  can  go.'" 

This  hint  about  the  examination  bore  fruit.  He 
got  his  rise  into  the  Fourth  Form  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  the  only  boy  from  the  Third  Form  who 
did.  His  progress  that  year  must  have  been  rapid, 
for  in  August  he  writes  to  his  mother : — "We  heard 
the  history  list  this  morning.  I  was  first,  O'Brien 
Maximus  second,  Smith  third.  In  Geography  O'Brien 
was  first,  I  second.  The  Prize  has  been  adjudged 
to  me,  Mr  Tuckwell  spoke  in  the  kindest  way  of 
my  paper  which  he  said  was  much  superior  to 
anyone  else's.  I  am  very  much  surprised  at  my 
own  luck  ;  I  never  expected  to  be  above  O'Brien 
Maximus." 

The  Rev.  W.  Tuckwell  kindly  permits  me  to 
publish  this  description  of  him  as  a  boy. 


1 6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1855 

"Pyrford  Rough,  Woking, 

November  26th,   1906. 

Dear  Madam, 

I  am  perhaps  the  last  man  left  who  remembers 
your  husband  as  a  pupil  in  1853  (0  when  brought  by  his 
father  to  St  Columba's  College.  He  was  in  my  Form,  and 
as  classical  master  I  had  charge  of  his  composition.  I 
remember  the  delightful  contrast  between  him  and  other 
boys.  They  were  good  studious  fairly  clever  boys,  but 
looked  on  their  Latin  verses  as  at  best  a  kind  of  Chinese 
puzzle :  he  seemed  to  feel  the  force  of  a  distinguishing 
epithet,  the  charm  of  a  corrected  word  or  phrase ;  caught 
up  hints  and  improved  them,  turned  out  all  his  copies  with 
something  of  artistic  pride.  He  was  unusually  shy  and 
timid,  blushing  like  a  girl  when  addressed,  his  eyes  mostly 
downcast,  but  bright  and  glancing  when  he  was  encouraged  ; 
and  he  responded  gratefully  to  kindliness  and  attention. 
The  Warden,  George  Williams  of  King's,  a  very  remark- 
able man,  in  masculine  vigour  of  character  and  intense 
hatred  of  evil  closely  resembling  Dr  Arnold  of  Rugby,  saw, 
as  did  we  all,  the  great  promise  of  your  husband,  and  was 
much  hurt  by  his  removal  after  a  year  or  two.  It  was  a 
wise  step ;  he  had  in  fact  outgrown  the  St  Columba 
teaching." 

He  left  St  Columba's  in  1854  and  was  admitted 
at  Charterhouse  early  in  the  following  year. 

"  ...I  like  Charterhouse  very  well — it  is  pleasant 
for  a  school,"  he  writes  on  February  17th,  1855, — 
though  he  still  drags  a  lengthening  chain  with  the 
other  end  fast  at  Killiney.  ''How  I  wish  I  could 
get  over  these  high  walls  ;  into  a  train  ;  and  home 
again.  But  Whitsuntide  must  come  at  last  if  the 
world  endures  so  long," 


1856]  Childhood  and  School  Days  17 

He  soon  began  to  feel  more  at  home  in  Charter- 
house, becoming  greatly  attached  to  Mr  Elwyn, 
the  second  master,  who  became  Headmaster  in 
1858,  on  the  death  of  Dr  Elder.  He  quickly 
made  friends  among  the  boys,  besides  meeting 
family  friends  in  the  sons  of  the  Rev.  Charles 
Forster,  the  close  friend  and  able  biographer  of  his 
great-uncle  Bishop  J  ebb  ;  he  liked  examinations  and 
competitions,  and  of  these  there  was  a  sufficiency  ; 
above  all,  he  liked  feeling  his  own  powers  which 
were  rapidly  growing  and  shaping.  The  prizes  he 
won  were  chiefly  a  pleasure  to  him  because  of  the 
happiness  his  success  gave  to  the  dear  ones  at 
Desmonds  His  brother  Heneage  describes  him 
rushing  up  the  steps  and  into  the  drawing-room, 
on  his  return  for  the  holidays,  dropping  down  on 
his  knees  before  ''darling  Mammy"  and  throwing 
with  both  hands  his  prizes  into  her  lap.  They  were 
her  chief  treasures  until  she  gave  them  to  his  wife 
after  his  marriage. 

His  letters  to  his  sister  at  this  time  are  written 
in  a  tone  of  cheerfulness,  which  shows  life  was  satis- 
factory. 

"My  dearest  Tye, 

It  is  precisely  nine  minutes  to  ten  on 
Saturday  night  and  here  I  am  in  the  Parthenon  Club  ; 
don't  you  think  under  the  circumstances  I  ought  to 
be  starting  for  Charterhouse  ?  Well,  not  just  yet. 
Uncle  Richard  is  dozing  and  soon  will  be  snoring, 
^  His  father's  house  at  Killiney. 
J.  M,  2 


1 8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1858 

and  the  rooms  are  very  quiet,  so  altogether  there 
couldn't  be  a  better  time  for  writing  a  letter  to  a 
dutiful  sister  like  yourself.  Uncle  R.  took  me  by 
surprise  about  ten  o'clock  to-day  at  C.H.  I  thought 
he  was  safe  at  Desmond  but  there  he  was ;  so  I  got 
leave  to  go  out  with  him  and  we  went  in  a  little 
Thames  steamboat  down  to  Chelsea  and  walked 
about  in  Battersea  Park.  He  had  first  to  leave  a 
parcel  for  Aunt  J  ebb  at  Mr  Burke's ;  he  gave  me 
three  guesses  what  it  was  :  I  guessed 

1.  a  backgammon-board 

2.  a  Peerage 

3.  a  medicine-chest : — 

but  it  was  brown  soap! 

Look  in  the  Times  and  you'll  see  £2/\^.  \js.  2d. 
was  collected  in  the  C.H.  Chapel  on  the  First  Day. 
Pretty  well  for  only  boys  and  pensioners,  was  it  not  ? 
Your  affectionate  brother, 

Dick." 

Dick's  school  days  came  to  an  end  in  the  spring 
of  1858  :  on  May  6th,  having  now  left  Charterhouse, 
he  writes  : 

"Peterstow,  May  Sth^  1858. 

Dearest  Mammy, 

I  did  feel  the  greatest  regret  at  leaving 
the  old  place  and  all  its  associations.  We  attended 
service  in  Chapel  as  usual  at  the  end  of  the 
quarter,  at  9.30  a.m.  yesterday.  The  distribution  of 
prizes  commenced  immediately  afterwards  at  10.15. 


1858]  Childhood  and  School  Days  19 

Mr  Elwyn  and  the  four  other  masters  of  the  school 
presided.  When  the  turn  of  the  Sixth  Form  came, 
we  went  up  before  the  awful  dais  and  the  order  was 
read  out.  I  stood  first  and  received  the  prize  :  but 
what  I  value  ten  times  more,  was  the  way  in  which 
Mr  Elwyn  spoke  of  me  to  the  school  on  behalf  of 
the  Examiners  and  Masters.  I  shall  never  forget 
his  words  as  long  as  I  live  :  but  they  are  not  words 
to  be  written  down  at  length,  and  you  shall  have 
them  some  other  time.  The  Preacher  then  adjudged 
the  prizes  for  the  Theological  Essays  : — subject, 
'  National  Judgments  and  National  Mercies  as  ex- 
hibited in  Bible  History.'  He  awarded  the  first 
prize  to  me,  and  was  good  enough  to  say  that  my 
essay  was  the  best  that  had  ever  been  shown  up  for 
his  prize.  He  then  spoke  of  me  in  terms  as  grati- 
fying and  kind  as  those  which  Elwyn  had  used. 
Then  came  the  mathematical  list.  I  was  surprised 
that  I  stood  second  and  received  the  second  Walford 
prize  in  six  volumes.  Lastly  I  received  two  Classical 
Medals  for  Latin  prose  and  Greek  verse.  Elwyn 
then  presented  me  with  the  book  usually  given  to 
the  Monitors  at  leaving  with  a  few  of  the  very 
kindest  words  I  ever  heard  in  my  life " 

His  old  school  said  its  last  word  to  him  on 
December  13th,  1905,  when  it  sent  a  beautiful 
wreath  with  the  message 

Fratri  Praeclarissimo 
Valedicunt 
Carthusiani. 


/       ^     OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHAPTER    III. 

UNDERGRADUATE    YEARS. 
1858— 1862. 

J  EBB  came  up  to  Cambridge  in  October,  1858, 
under  good  auspices.  His  reputation  from  Charter- 
house preceded  him,  and  he  was  fortunate  in  having 
that  great  scholar,  Dr  Lightfoot,  late  Bishop  of 
Durham,  for  his  tutor.  He  was  very  young,  having 
attained  the  age  of  seventeen  only  five  weeks  before, 
on  August  27  th.  Mr  J  ebb  had  felt  much  doubt 
about  the  advisability  of  allowing  him  to  come  up 
this  year,  but  the  general  opinion  was  in  favour,  and 
the  boy  himself  was  set  against  delay. 

His  friend,  the  Vice-Provost  of  Eton\  describes 
the  impression  made  on  his  contemporaries  at  this 
time. 

"  It  was  in  October  1858  that  I  went  to  Bishop's  Hostel, 
being  then  in  my  second  year,  to  call  on  the  famous  fresh- 
man. There  is  always  a  famous  freshman  :  the  year  before 
it  was  Trevelyan,  from  Harrow ;  that  year  it  was  Jebb, 
from  Charterhouse.  The  impression  then  received  has 
only  been  deepened  in  the  years  that  have  followed  ;  an 

*  Mr  F.  Warre  Cornish  in  the  Cambrids:e  Review. 


1858]  Undergraduate   Years  21 

impression  of  force  and  refinement,  shyness  and  courtesy, 
pungency  and  kindliness,  readiness  and  reserve,  composing 
a  character  the  attraction  of  which  was  heightened  by  a 
sense  of  enigma  in  an  appearance  of  elaborateness  without 
affectation.  Here  was  a  person  whom  you  were  not  likely 
to  know  at  once,  nor  beyond  your  own  limitations  ever ; 
but  how  well  worth  knowing,  so  far  as  he  would  grant  it ! 
We  were  told,  and  we  easily  believed,  that  he  came  up  to 
Cambridge  at  seventeen,  because  he  had  learnt  all  that 
Charterhouse  could  teach  him.  He  appeared  here  with 
a  kind  of  nimbus  of  distinction,  and  it  never  left  him.  I 
imagine  him  entering  Cambridge  with  a  blaze  of  light  fol- 
lowing him,  and  his  gaze  full  of  inquiry,  set  upon  knowing 
the  world  that  opened  before  him  and  all  that  it  contained. 
He  was  radiant  with  life,  wit,  and  all  that  the  word  scholar- 
ship denotes  ;  which  I  take  to  be  a  bright  and  cheery  word, 
the  very  contrary  of  pedantry.  He  never  did  anything  by 
halves ;  and  in  his  first  year  he  tried  the  taste  of  every- 
thing, and  became  an  epitome  of  university  life.  He  joined 
the  A.D.C.\  the  Beefsteak  Club,  the  Whist  Club,  and  I 
almost  think  the  Athenaeum  ;  he  steered  a  First  Trinity 
Boat,  held  a  commission  in  the  Volunteers,  and  was  an 
officer  of  the  Union  and  the  Musical  Society.  We  used  to 
smile  at  his  versatility,  thinking  it  superficial,  not  knowing 
that  Jebb  did  well  whatever  he  did,  and  that  these  were 
only  phases  of  an  almost  universal  capacity.  His  clear 
and  melodious  voice  expressed  him,  as  did  his  beautiful 
handwriting ;  his  somewhat  hesitating  manner  came  not 
from  uncertain  judgment,  but  from  a  courteous  wish  to 
show  his  own  point  of  view,  always  individual  and  original, 
without  too  much  enforcing  it.  He  could  be  not  only 
brilliant  in  talk,  but  cogent  and  severe  in  argument ;  what 
he  loved  best,  like  Henry  Sidgwick,  though  with  a  different 
method,  was  to  find  points  of  agreement  in  diverging  views." 
^  Amateur  Dramatic  Club. 


22  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1859 

The  change  is  great  from  the  strict  rule  of  school 
to  the  wide  freedom  a  University  accords  to  her 
undergraduates.  No  wonder  the  youth  was  carried 
away  for  a  time  by  the  amusements  and  fresh 
interests  that  opened  out  before  him.  At  school 
he  had  been  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  study ; 
the  only  recreations  he  had  cared  for  were  long 
solitary  walks  in  the  gardens  of  Sydenham,  dream- 
ing dreams  and  seeing  visions ; — and  music,  which 
he  loved  with  intensity.  Perhaps  Nature  whispered 
that  his  mind  was  growing  unevenly, — better  give 
study  a  rest  and  let  the  lighter  social  qualities  take 
their  turn  in  developing ;  thus  he  would  be  better 
equipped  for  the  part  he  might  be  called  upon  to 
play  in  life. 

In  addition  to  other  societies  he  had  the  honour 
of  being  elected  an  '*  Apostle"  in  his  first  year,  a 
distinction  which  he  always  valued,  and  which  at 
once  brought  him  into  intimate  relations  with  many 
of  the  best  men  in  the  University.  It  was  a  period 
when  much  entertaining  was  the  fashion,  of  which 
he  took  his  full  share.  One  wonders  how  he  found 
time  to  read  at  all,  so  full  is  his  diary  of  almost 
hourly  social  engagements.  Of  course  he  could 
not  live  within  his  allowance,  and  yet,  as  he  always 
said,  he  had  no  extravagant  habits.  The  one  thing 
he  could  not  do  was  to  keep  accounts,  or  remember 
that  the  aggregate  of  many  little  sums  makes  sur- 
prisingly big  totals.  It  is  almost  pathetic  to  read 
letter  after  letter  to  his  father  always  expressing 
amazement  that  the  bills  are  so  large. 


1859]  Undergraduate  Years  23 

"FiRBECK  Hall, 

April  2:^rd^   1859. 

My  dear  Pappy, 

I  am  greatly  surprised  at  the  amount  of 
the  College  Bill  which  you  enclose  ;  and  must  in  the 
first  place  thank  you  for  the  kind  manner  in  which 
you  have  received  it.  I  proceed  to  throw  what  light 
I  can  on  the  items  of  which  it  is  composed. 

(i)  'Chandler'  (for  one  term)  ^8.  13^*.  4^. 
This  enormous  item  I  am  totally  at  a  loss  to  explain. 
I  certainly  was  not  a  party  to  an  Illumination  or 
anything  else  of  the  kind. 

(2)  'Tailor'  £ij.  i^s.  6d.  The  largeness  of 
this  item  does  surprise  me,  for  though  I  certainly 
did  get  some  articles,  I  did  not  think  they  would 
come  to  the  half " 

And  so  he  takes  up  each  item  of  a  bill  amounting 
to  over  £100 ',  always  surprised,  never  really  extrava- 
gant, only  ordering  what  he  thought  necessary,  with 
no  thought  or  question  as  to  the  cost.  All  through 
his  life  there  were  so  many  things  to  think  about, 
that  he  had  no  time  to  think  of  money.  His  father 
had  been  afraid  that  he  might  be  getting  into  an  idle 
and  fast  set,  and  letting  his  chances  slip  through  his 
fingers.      This  he  repudiates  indignantly : 

*'  I  prize  such  honours  too  much  and  have  worked 
for  them  too  hard  to  do  anything  so  foolish.  Can 
you  mention  an  instance  of  my  missing  or  losing 
anything  from  overweening  confidence  in  my  own 
powers,  and  consequent  idleness  ?  Allow  me  then  to 
choose  my  own  set  and  trust  to  me  that  I  will  choose 
in  the  way  best  for  my  own  interests.     I  will  read 


24  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1859 

but  not  very  hard  ;  because  I  know  better  than  you 
or  any  one  can  tell  me,  how  much  reading  is  good 
for  the  development  of  my  own  powers  at  the  present 
time,  and  will  conduce  to  my  success  next  year  and 
afterwards  ;  and  I  will  not  identify  myself  with  what 
are  called  in  Cambridge  'the  reading  set,'  i.e.  men 
who  read  circ.  twelve  hours  a  day  and  never  do 
anything ;  (i)  because  I  should  lose  ten  per  cent,  of 
reputation  (which  at  the  University  is  no  bubble  but 
real  living  useful  capital)  ;  (2)  because  the  reading 
set,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  utterly  uncongenial  to 
me.  My  set  is  a  set  that  reads,  but  does  not  only 
read  ;  that  accomplishes  one  great  end  of  University 
life  by  mixing  in  cheerful  and  intellectual  society, 
and  learning  the  ways  of  the  world  which  its  mem- 
bers are  so  soon  to  enter;  and  which,  without  the 
pedantry  and  cant  of  the  *  reading  man,'  turns  out 
as  good  Christians,  better  scholars,  better  men  of 
the  world,  and  better  gentlemen,  than  those  mere 
plodders  with  whom  a  man  is  inevitably  associated  if 
he  identifies  himself  with  the  reading  set.  It  seems 
to  me  almost  absurd  to  assure  you  that  I  have  not 
been  idle  ;  but  I  give  the  assurance  in  case  kind 
friends  have  endeavoured  to  alarm  you  on  that  head. 
Firbeck^  is  extremely  pleasant.  We  are  getting 
up  '  Tom  Noddy's  Secret'  for  acting  next  week  and 
I  am  to  be  the  hero.  I  will  write  to  some  of  you 
on  Sunday. 

I  remain, 

Your  affectionate  son, 

R.  C.  Jebb." 
^  The  house  of  Mrs  Miles,  a  cousin. 


1859]  Undergraduate   Years  25 

He  had  just  won  the  Person  Scholarship  in  his 
second  term.  Congratulations  poured  in.  The 
Headmaster  of  Charterhouse  wrote  to  his  father : 

" I  always  hoped  great  things  of  him  but  I  had 

scarcely  ventured  to  carry  my  hopes  so  high,  as  the  event 
proves  I  might  have  done.  The  last  Carthusian  who 
attained  the  same  success  was  Bishop  Thirlwall  of  St 
David's." 

His  cousin  Charles  Spencer  Perceval  wrote  to 
Mr  Jebb  : 

" I  heard  a  little  while  ago  that  some  of  Dick's 

Latin  verses  were  so  beautiful  and  pathetic  as  to  extract 
tears  from  the  venerable  eyes  of  Dr  Jeremie,  one  of  the 
Examiners  for  the  University  Scholarships." 

And  his  tutor,  Dr  Lightfoot,  accompanies  the 
before-mentioned  Bill  with  some  remarks  of  a  more 
agreeable  nature : 

" You  will   be  glad  to  hear  also  that  the  Trinity 

examiners  were  very  much  struck  with  his  papers On 

the  whole  perhaps  his  plan  of  reading  at  home  during 
the  vacation  will  be  as  good  as  any.  He  has  too  many 
friends  in  Cambridge,  and,  I  think,  allows  them  to  occupy 
too  much  of  his  time.  But  it  is  hard  to  find  fault  with 
one  who  has  been  so  successful ;  and  his  conduct,  other- 
wise, has  been  so  satisfactory  that  I  should  not  have 
thought  of  mentioning  this  but  that  his  brilliant  prospects 
only  increase  one's  anxiety  lest  they  should  not  be  borne 
out  in  the  result." 

At  the  end  of  this  October  term,  a  friend  for 
whom  he  had  the  greatest  regard  and  admiration, 
the  present  Master  of  Trinity,  left  Cambridge  to 
take   up  other   duties.      Writing  to   his   father  on 


26  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

November  20th,  1 859,  he  says,  '* You  will  be  glad 

to  hear  that  Butler  has  been  made  Headmaster  of 
Harrow,  youth  and  inexperience  notwithstanding ; 
which  indeed  don't  matter  much  where  the  mind  is 
so  matured  and  so  capable  of  quick  development,  or 
rather  adaptation.  He  will  be  greatly  missed  by 
some  men  here.     For  my  part  I  feel  his  loss  already." 

In  i860  he  began  a  correspondence  with  a  distant 
cousin  whom  he  had  seen  much  of  during  a  visit  to 
Firbeck  Hall,  and  later  at  her  own  home  in  Boston. 
He  writes  of  her  to  his  mother,  after  saying  how 
happy  he  has  been  with  the  whole  family  at  Boston, 

'' My  favourite,  however,  is  the  eldest  daughter, 

Susan,  who  will  soon  be  an  old  maid,  poor  thing " 
[this  does  not  necessarily  mean  any  advanced  age — 
merely  the  point  of  view  of  a  youth  of  eighteen]. 
**  She  sympathises  thoroughly  with  young  people, 
and  is  universally  liked  by  old  and  young  for  her 
unselfishness  and  kindness  of  disposition." 

The  letters  to  her  tell  something  of  his  history  in 
the  next  two  years,  and,  written  as  they  are  with 
ease  and  frankness,  give  a  vivid  impression  of  the 
keenness  and  ardour  he  brought  to  every  pursuit, 
whether  it  was  work,  or  amusement,  or  something 
that  was  soon  to  touch  him  still  more  deeply  than 
either — an  affair  of  the  affections. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

^''February  2nd,  i860. 

Herbert  Booth  turned  up  last  night  at  the 

rooms  of  our  friend  Cornish,  having  just  found  the 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  27 

hearthrug  on  the  table  in  his  rooms,  and  thence 
perceived  that  his  bed-maker  did  not  know  of  his 
arrival,  and  was  innocent  of  any  preparation  for  him. 

I  took  a  walk  with  him  this  afternoon,  after  a 
game  of  billiards  replete  with  extraordinary  strokes 
(for  each  of  which  one's  adversary  scores  one — a  great 
mistake  :  brilliant  misses  ought  to  count  double). 

We  compared  notes  about  the  Christmas  vacation. 
He  seems  to  have  been  pleasantly  quartered  in 
Staffordshire  ; — quiet  family  party  of  six  ; — amiable 
boy  ; — early  dinner  ; — piquet  with  the  aunt ; — turn 
over  music  for  the  sister.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
sensible  fellows  I  know,  and  I  am  glad  to  get  his 
advice  about  a  profession,  because  his  is  precisely 
the  mind  to  choose  well — being  perfectly  calm  and 
remarkably  comprehensive.  We  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  an  engineer  is  better  off  than  a  barrister 
without  interest,  an  emigrant  who  doesn't  understand 
sheep,  an  Indian  servant  without  a  spare  liver,  or  a 
parson  without  decided  zeal... 

I  open  this  to  add  that  I  will  do  your  character^ 
and  the  others,  directly  the  examination  for  the 
Craven  is  over. 

'  The  hour  is  almost  come 
When  I  to  stifling  and  tormenting  grind 
Must  render  up  myself,' 

which  in  the  English  of  the  nineteenth  century  signifies 
that  it  is  now  twenty-five  minutes  past  eight  a.m., 
and  that  I  go  into  the  Senate  House  at  nine 

^  It  was  the  fashion  of  the  moment  to  tell  character  from 
handwriting. 


28  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

Feb.  T,rd.  The  examination  for  the  Craven  is 
just  over,  ended  at  4  p.m.  Result  will  not  be  known 
for  two  months  or  more 

You  cannot  conceive  the  ecstatic  feeling  one  has 
on  emerging  from  the  Senate  House,  after  the  last 
paper,  into  the  fresh  air 

Excuse  this  vile  writing.  The  fact  is,  I  have  a 
spiteful  pleasure  in  scribbling  my  worst  after  some 
literary  effort  which  has  demanded  good  behaviour." 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

''March  1st,  i860. 

One  more  week  struck  off  from  the  interval 

before  Easter:  during  which,  6.30  a.m.  has  seen  me 
out  of  bed  regularly  every  morning,  with  a  view  to 
7  A.M.  Chapel,  and  Drill  immediately  afterwards.... 
We  have  not  turned  out  in  uniform  yet ;  the  day 
fixed  at  present  is  Monday  next ;  when,  after  march- 
ing through  the  town  to  Fenner's  Cricket  Ground 
(the  streets  being  kept  by  the  Town  Corps  as  a 
guard  of  honour),  we  shall  return  to  the  Senate 
House  and  take  the  oath  of  alleofiance.  The 
Sergeant  described  the  forms  to  be  observed  very 
graphically :  '  You  faces  right  and  left ;  then  you 
takes  the  book  in  your  four  hinward  ands,  and 
swears  houtwardly.' 

Have  you  ever  seen  our  hall  at  Trinity  during 
feeding  time  ?  If  you  have  not,  I  will  assist  your 
imagination.  Fancy  a  vast  hall,  traversed  length- 
wise by  narrow  tables.  Fancy  these  tables  crowded 
to   excess    with    British    youths   in  every   stage  of 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  29 

starvation  or  repletion  :  some,  with  the  stony  look 
of  despairing  hunger ;  some,  in  whose  faces  despair 
has  not  yet  frozen  boiling  indignation ;  some,  whose 
countenances  express  ungrateful  content  and  the 
peace  that  is  engendered  by  unctuous  pudding. 
Between  these  tables,  where  haggard  misery  is  the 
neighbour  of  stolid  fatness,  fancy  a  dense  tide  of 
slovenly  men  and  dirty  old  women  pushing,  wrang- 
ling, struggling  for  hacked  and  gory  joints,  upsetting 
gravy,  dropping  dishes,  always  in  a  hurry,  never 
attending  to  one,  but  always  going  to  everybody.  If, 
in  addition  to  these  efforts  of  imagination,  you  can 
further  portray  to  your  fancy  the  personal  appearance 
of  a  leg  of  mutton,  which  has  been  carved  in  succes- 
sion by  three  or  four  men,  who  have  distinct  and 
antagonistic  theories  on  that  subject,  you  will  have 
a  faint,  a  very  faint  and  dim  conception  of  Trinity, 
its  Hall.  So,  last  Monday,  a  meeting  was  held  of 
some  Trinity  men  (I  was  one  of  them),  at  which  a 
Petition  was  approved  for  presentation  to  Whewell 
and  the  Senior  Fellows,  praying  earnestly  for  a  total 
Reform  :  and  we  confidently  look  for  a  favourable 
answer. 

One  effect  which  University  life  produces  on  my 
mind,  is  the  idealisation,  almost,  of  life  in  the  world 
external  to  Cambridge  : — I  mean,  that  I  look  back 
on  life  at  home  and  in  private  society  as  on  a  dream  ; 
so  totally  unlike  is  it  to  anything  we  have  here,  living 
entirely  among  ourselves,  never  seeing  a  lady's  face, 
and  never  associating  w^ith  people  older  than  our- 
selves.    You  have  probably  observed,  by  this  time, 


30  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

that  I  am  one  of  those  hare-brained  correspondents 
who  stick  down  their  thoughts  exactly  as  they 
occur,  and  give  a  faithful  picture  of  a  disordered 
mind :  so  I  have  no  scruple  in  going  on  to  say 
that  Garfitt  is  not  likely  to  row  at  Putney  this 
year... ." 

The  petition  in  question  was  supposed  at  first  to 
have  given  much  annoyance  to  the  Master  of  Trinity, 
Dr  Whewell.  He  could  not  trust  himself,  he  said, 
to  look  at  the  names  of  the  petitioners,  as  he  should 
certainly  have  an  unpleasant  feeling  towards  them 
ever  afterwards.  The  petition  *'  humbly  showed  that 
the  manner  of  serving  dinner  in  Hall  was  disgusting: 
and  prayed,  (i)  that  two  dinners  should  be  provided 
daily,  at  different  hours,  in  order  to  prevent  too 
great  a  crowd  of  men  from  dining  at  once  :  (2)  that 
a  staff  of  men  waiters  should  be  organised,  cleanly, 
decently  dressed,  and  efficient :  (3)  that  any  man 
should  be  exempt  from  paying  for  dinner  in  Hall, 
on  giving  previous  notice  of  his  intention  to  dine 
elsewhere."  The  Master  notwithstanding  rumours 
did  take  some  action  ;  ''He  allowed  the  Tutors  to 
receive  testimony  corroborating  our  statements,  and 
to  suggest  practicable  reforms." 

The  Craven  Scholarship  was  awarded  on  the 
4th  of  March.  J  ebb  had  written  to  his  father  again 
and  again  that  they  must  not  be  disappointed  if  he 
failed  to  get  the  prize.  Such  a  failure  would  be  no 
disgrace,  seeing  that  no  one  could  expect  to  win 
two  University  Scholarships  in  two  consecutive 
years. 


i86o]  Undergraduate  Years  31 

''March  i^th,   i860. 

Dear  Pappy, 

If  a  telegram  which  I  sent  this  morning 
reached  its  destination,  you  know  by  this  time  that 
I  have  got  the  Craven.  The  Second  University 
Scholarship  (the  Battie)  is  adjudged  to  a  great  friend 
of  mine,  Cornish  of  King's,  a  third  year  man  :  so 
nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory. 

The  Examiners  were  entirely  unanimous,  and 
I  have  been  told  that  I  was  far  ahead  of  the  rest. 
It  was  known  that  the  scholarships  were  coming  out 
yesterday,  and,  though  morally  certain  that  I  should 
not  be  successful,  I  felt  uncomfortable  as  on  the  eve 
of  a  disagreeable  announcement.  So  a  friend  of 
mine,  Trevelyan,  and  I  arranged  to  take  a  long  ride, 
and  not  return  till  dark  to  Cambridge.  As  we  got 
near  home  I  felt  rather  uncomfortable  ;  I  knew  that 
the  moment  I  entered  my  room  the  truth  would 
appear, — in  the  event  of  my  success,  the  table  would 
be  covered  with  notes  and  cards,  otherwise,  it 
would  be  a  blank.  As  I  mounted  the  stairs,  I  felt 
a  conviction  that  the  table  would  be  in  statu  quo, 
with  nothing  on  it.  I  walked  in — there  were  notes 
on  the  table.  The  first  was  from  Lightfoot — *  con- 
gratulations.' Another  from  Clark,  the  Public  Orator 
— 'with  congratulations';  but  it  was  not  till  I  caught 
sight  of  a  square  piece  of  paper  in  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor's hand,  *  Craven  Scholar — Richard  Claverhouse 
J  ebb  of  Trinity' — that  my  doubts  and  fears  finally 
vanished. 


3  2  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

The  Craven  is  tenable  for  six  years,  value,  about 
;^8o  per  annum. 

Elwyn,  whom  I  informed  by  telegram  of  the 
event,  seems  very  much  delighted  and  tells  me  he 
intends  to  'announce  the  triumph  publicly  to  the 
School '  to-day ;  and  as  '  triumphs '  mean  '  half- 
holidays,'  the  announcement  will  doubtless  be  well 
received  \ 

The  Little  Go  begins  on  Monday.  I  would  far 
rather  go  in  for  the  most  elaborate  classical  exami- 
nation, than  for  the  jumble  of  Paley's  Evidences, 
Arithmetic,  Euclid,  Statics,  and  Greek  Testament 
which  is  before  us." 

Charles  Forster^  wrote  a  day  or  two  later  to 
Mr  Jebb  : 

" Dick  as  usual  bears  his  honours  remarkably  well : 

I  was  particularly  struck  by  the  intense  burst  of  gratitude 
he  felt  towards  dear  old  Lightfoot,  on  getting  the  Craven, 
for  his  use  of  the  spur.  So  many  men  would  have  said, 
'  What  is  the  use  of  his  bothering  me,  when,  after  all,  I  got 
it  safe  enough.' 

Lightfoot's  feelings  are  mingled  pleasure  and  regret ; 
he  said  to  Henry ^  with  a  half  sigh,  'What  can  I  find  to 
give  that  boy  next .'' '     However,  he  consoled  himself  with 

^  In  J  905  a  member  of  the  Sixth  Form  recalled  the  announce- 
ment thus  : — "  I  remember  Elwyn  bounding  into  the  room  with  a 
telegram  in  his  hand :  *  Our  Dick  has  got  the  Craven — half-holiday 
for  all.' " 

^  Son  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster,  who  was  for  so  many  years 
chaplain  to  Bishop  Jebb. 

^  Henry  Forster,  son  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster.  He  was  at 
Trinity,  his  brother  at  Jesus. 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  33 

the  reflection  that  the  Degree  was  coming  ;  and  meanwhile 
we'll  hope  the  Prize  Exercises  will  keep  Dick  in  training. 

I  am  afraid  Dick  will  never  learn  business  habits ;  I 
don't  know  whether  it  is  quite  fair  to  tell  on  him,  but  he 
was  within  an  ace  of  losing  his  scholarship,  by  an  oversight, 
for  he  never  put  his  name  down  on  the  candidates'  list, 
which  is  essential  for  those  who  wish  to  stand.  Dick 
declares  he  never  heard  of  its  existence.  Luckily,  how- 
ever, Henry  discovered  the  omission  at  the  eleventh  hour 
and,  finding  it  would  not  be  forgery,  put  down  Dick's 
name,  county,  etc.,  etc.,  with  all  other  requisites.  I  believe 
the  hour  was  literally  eleven  and  the  list  went  in  at  twelve, 
so  it  was  rather  a  close  shave.  Dick's  worst  enemies  can't 
accuse  him  of  business  habits,  but  no  doubt  he  will  learn 
in  time  though  I  am  afraid  he  will  have  to  pay  for  the 
lesson." 


To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"  Trinity, 

March  2t^th^   i860. 

Fancy    my    feelings    v^hen    I    awoke    this 

morning  as  the  clock  was  striking — eight,  surely, — 
no !  nine  at  least — ten — eleven  ! !  I 

By  a  heartless  feint  of  getting  out  of  bed  I 
deceived  my  simple-minded  gyp,  who  went  away- 
rejoicing.  Then  I  got  in  again — and  the  conse- 
quence is  I  am  writing  to  you  at  twelve,  noon 

You  are  my  Guardian  Angel,  my  special  pro- 
vidence, my  Proverbial  Philosophy.  Not  only 
had  I  never  answered  Mrs  Miles'  letter,  but  had 
never  thought  of  answering  it.      Is  one  to  answer 

J.   M.  3 


54  ^^'^  Richai'd  Jebb  [i860 

congratulations^  ?  Well,  the  omission  is  atoned  for  : 
let  us  trust  it  is  not  too  late. 

The  Little  Go  is  over.  We  repose  in  trembling 
hope  which  to-morrow  evening  will  convert  into 
joyful  or  mournful  certainty. 

If  men  with  grievances  ought  to  be  happy,  my 
spirits  may  be  expected  to  rise.  I  have  got  a 
grievance.  My  Tutor,  Joseph  Barber  Lightfoot,  a 
pigheaded  though  talented  being,  professes  himself 
unable  to  give  me  some  long-expected  rooms  in  Old 
Court.  In  the  meantime,  an  especially  noisy  man 
has  got  the  rooms  above  my  present  set,  and  what 
makes  it  worse,  the  rooms  under  them  as.  well.  In 
the  latter  he  means  to  locate  his  valet,  and  that 
domestic  will  be  summoned  by  a  bell  communicating 
with  the  upper  rooms,  which  bell  the  amiable  Viscount 
has  had  put  up  for  his  special  convenience.  The 
pleasures  of  occupying  the  intermediate  rooms  will 
now  be  obvious  to  the  meanest  capacity.  Lightfoot 
is  a  pig !  " 

The  Little  Go  was  passed  successfully — the  only 
examination  in  which  he  seems  ever  to  have  reckoned 
on  success — and  on  April  21st  he  was  elected  to 
a  Trinity  Scholarship. 

It  is  surprising  that  he  should  have  done  so  well 
in  the  examinations,  for  about  this  time  he  fell  in 
love.  He  had  met  the  young  lady  while  on  a  visit 
to  Miss  J  ebb  and  was  at  once  strongly  attracted. 
All  his  plans  and  hopes  began  to  centre  in  her — how 
to  arrange  to  meet  her,  what  messages  to  send  her 
^  On  his  winning  the  Craven  Scholarship. 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  35 

through  Susan,  in  what  way  to  interest  her.  Susan 
must  arrange  to  bring  her  to  Cambridge  for  the 
boat-race  week  ;  and  when  this  was  settled,  dinners, 
picnics,  balls,  boating  parties,  were  made  into  a  pro- 
gramme so  that  her  every  moment  might  be  pleasantly 
occupied.  Letters  were  sent  almost  daily  to  the 
much-enduring  Susan,  to  consult  about  some  change, 
to  explain  some  detail,  to  express  some  hope.  And 
then  she  did  not  come  !  It  is  easy  to  understand 
that  the  girl's  mother  would  think  it  unwise  to  en- 
courage the  attentions  of  a  young  man  not  yet 
nineteen  whose  reckless  devotion  would  certainly 
attract  attention.  But  what  lover  was  ever  reasons- 
able — and  his  was  a  nature  to  kick  hard  against  the 
pricks. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"Trinity  College, 

May  26th,   i860. 

I  often  fear  that  my  letters  must  weary  you, 
being  almost  entirely  on  one  subject.  Great  de- 
spondency comes  upon  me  sometimes  when  I  think 
of  all  my  past  life.  For  years  everything  conspired 
to  make  me  think  that  Greek  and  Latin  were  the 
end  of  existence.  This  miserable  illusion  disappeared 
when  I  came  up  here,  and  yet  I  know  that  my  pre- 
tensions to  any  ability  whatever  rest  solely  on  pro- 
ficiency in  these  wretched  Classics,  which  I  now 
almost  detest.  What  I  yearn  for  is  a  start  in  the 
serious  business  of  life,  and  emancipation  from  these 
utterly  barren  studies — barren  at  least  in  respect  of 
all  that  is  practically  useful. 

3—2 


36  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

Then  I  have  learned  to  hate  competition — to 
long  for  some  station  in  life  with  definite  duties  in 
the  performance  of  which  I  might  find  rest  and 
peace.  It  is  fearful  to  wake  from  a  long  bright 
dream — from  years  of  hope  and  almost  enthusiasm, 
— and  find  oneself  nought.  Forgive  me,  dearest 
Susan,  for  the  selfishness  of  writing  in  this  strain. 
I  am  so  utterly  unhappy  at  times  that  I  scarcely 
know  what  I  am  saying.  It  is  ungrateful  to  write  to 
a  friend  like  you  such  dismal  letters,  but  you  are  the 
only  one  to  whom  I  can  pour  out  my  feelings  and  it 
is  such  a  relief  when  one  feels  very  miserable " 

His  unhappiness  at  this  time  arose  partly  from 
uncertainty  concerning  a  profession.  To  the  young 
undergraduate,  the  prospect  of  staying  up  as  a  don 
offered  no  attractions.  The  yearning  was  already 
on  him  to  depart 

"  Into  the  world  and  wave  of  men," 

to  try  his  powers  in  a  wider  field.  He  wanted  to 
plunge  at  once  into  the  business  of  life ;  to  make 
money  to  secure  independence  ;  to  be  in  a  position 
to  marry  ;  to  have  a  home  as  the  background  for 
his  fight  with  the  world. 

There  had  been  talk  about  his  going  into  the 
Church,  but  he  shrank  from  pledging  himself  to  its 
service,  unless  impelled  by  the  highest  motives ; 
and  the  claims  of  an  eager  vitality  were  clamouring 
in  his  ears  too  insistently  for  self-abnegation.  The 
Law  again,  his  grandfather's  profession — but  then 
his  grandfather  had  early  come  into  a  fortune  and 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  2>7 

could  bide  his  time — would  require  years  of  waiting 
for  success ;  and  never  anyone  existed  to  whom 
waiting  was  so  irksome.  His  mother  never  dared 
tell  him  as  a  child  of  any  treat  or  expedition  planned 
for  his  pleasure  until  almost  the  moment  of  starting^ 
or  else  there  was  no  peace.  "Isn't  it  time?"  ''Isn't 
it  time  now  ? "  would  be  his  steady  cry  while  his 
little  legs  would  race  up  and  down  stairs  and  through 
the  house  to  get  some  one  or  other  to  make  him 
''quite  ready,"  hours  before  it  was  necessary.  A 
third  alternative  was  Engineering.  A  distant  cousin, 
Sir  Joshua  Jebb,  had  made  a  great  success  in  this 
profession.  He  and  his  wife  Lady  Amelia  Jebb  had 
been  very  kind  to  the  bright  boy,  and  probably  he 
thought  here  was  skilled  advice  at  his  disposal. 

In  October,  i860,  at  the  beginning  of  his  third 
year,  he  came  up  in  better  spirits.  The  vacation 
had  been  very  pleasant,  the  latter  part  of  it  spent  at 
a  place  he  loved,  Firbeck  Hall  in  Yorkshire,  the 
country  home  of  a  distant  cousin,  Mrs  Miles,  whose 
hospitality  was  always  generous  and  pleasantly  exer- 
cised. Also,  he  had  escaped  in  College  from  those 
upper  and  nether  millstones — the  Viscount  and  his 
valet — and  was  settling  into  fresh  quarters. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"  Trinity, 

October  22nd,  i860. 

I  got  up  at  7.30  this  morning,  and  up  to  the 
present  moment  3.45  p.m.,  have  been  incessantly 
occupied  with  countless  morsels  of  business — some 


38  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

connected  with  my  removal  to  new  diggings — some 
with  the  First  Trinity  Boat  Club — most  with  my 
arrangements  for  work. 

The  latter  are  completed  and  I  feel  happy  to 
think  of  the  invulnerable  front  which  I  shall  op- 
pose to  the  arrows  of  temptation.  I  am  going 
TO  READ.  But  I  have  instituted  a  cottage  Broad- 
wood,  hired  by  the  term,  to  shed  the  soul  of  music 
through  the  shrine  of  X.  Y.  and  Z....  5.30  p.m.: 
Have  been  to  Hall,  have  seen  my  coach,  have  got 
good  advice ;  and  now  have  still  half  an  hour  before 
Chapel....  You  shall  hear  about  Firbeck....  On 
the  Monday  after  our  arrival  A.^  was  expected. 
Feeling  that  the  climax  of  our  lives  was  approaching, 
that  the  hour  was  at  hand  when  we  should  see  the 
great  A.  face  to  face,  Emma  and  I  went  forth  to 
meet  our  destiny  which  was  coming  from  Worksop 
in  the  Whitechapel.  It  was  cold,  windy,  and  dark  ; 
so  after  struggling  with  the  elements  for  the  distance 
of  two  miles,  we  turned  back,  expecting  that  the 
Phenomenon  would  overtake  us.  However  we 
arrived  at  the  cross-roads  without  having  heard 
wheels ;  and  then  a  dilemma  arose.  Would  the 
Great  Unknown  approach  by  the  back  or  the  front 
way  .'^  Adopting  the  former  supposition,  we  turned 
to  the  left  instead  of  holding  straight  on.  A  low 
hedge  skirted  both  roads.  We  had  not  gone  twenty 
yards — a   sound   of  wheels,    and    the    Whitechapel 

^  A  young  relative  of  Mrs  Miles  had  become  engaged  to  A. 
and  this  was  his  first  introduction  to  the  family.  "  Emma  "  was 
the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Gladwyn  Jebb,  nephew  of  Mrs  Miles. 


i86o]  Undergraduate   Years  39 

apparent  over  the  hedge  of  the  other  road,  rapidly 
nearing  the  cross-roads  we  were  leaving !  They 
might  take  the  other  road  and  not  pass  us  at  all. 
To  deliberate  was  to  be  lost ;  we  faced  about — 
crept  stealthily  but  rapidly  along  the  hedge,  and 
turned  the  corner,  just  as  the  great  Affianced  was 
upon  us.  A  moment  of  painfully  intense  expecta- 
tion— one  moment  in  which  our  senses  were  con- 
centrated into  sight — the  flash  of  a  white  choker 
whirled  by — and  we  were  left  to  reflect  that  we  had 
seen  A. 

Yet  another  vision  flits  across  my  memory.  Lo, 
it  is  evening ; — a  party  of  four  are  playing  whist. 
One  of  them  has  revoked  for  the  second  time — is  it 
that  young  man  whose  disordered  tie  proclaims  that 
the  spirit  within  is  ill  at  ease  ?  It  is.  For  as  he 
was  playing,  was  not  a  waltz  struck  up  in  the  hall  ? 
and  did  he  not  see  around  him  lots  of  old  buffers  who 
could  not  dance  and  might  have  played — impotent 
himself  to  make  the  suggestion  ?  And  did  he  not 
hear  Miss  F.  dancing  with  Miss  C.  ?  And  did  not 
hope  deferred  make  him  play  '  shocking '  till  the 
music  stopped  and  he  had  lost  a  dozen  points  ? — 
Know,  oh  Susan,  that  having  been  wounded  in  my 
most  vulnerable  feelings — having  been  chaffed  about 
my  billiards — I  have  offered  Emma  to  play  her  next 
Christmas  under  circumstances  the  most  trying.  I 
am  to  give  her  thirty  out  of  fifty,  to  play  with  an 
umbrella  for  a  cue.  Don't  you  think  that  is  a  sporting 
offer  ?  Other  notable  reminiscences  of  our  visit  have 
I   none,  save  that  Mr  wants  to  be  kept  in 


40  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [i860 

order  by  some  one  equally  gifted  with  a  genius  for 
being  disagreeable. 

Your  affectionate  cousin, 

Dick." 

Jebb  had  from  first  coming  up  been  interested  in 
the  Cambridge  Rifle  Corps.  The  news  he  announces 
in  the  next  letter  was  most  gratifying  to  him. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

''October  sisf,  i860. 

Two  great  distinctions  have  been  conferred 

on  your  undeserving  cousin  within  the  week.  In 
the  first  place  I  have  been  elected  a  member  of  the 
A.D.C.  (Amateur  Dramatic  Club)  in  a  very  pleasant 
way.  Last  Wednesday  the  manager  of  the  Club,  a 
friend  of  mine,  came  and  said  I  had  been  already 
elected,  and  that  he  was  come  to  know  if  I  was 
willing  to  join....  The  second  piece  of  promotion 
was  still  more  unexpected.  The  votes  of  a  majority 
of  my  company  have  transformed  Private  Jebb,  a 
soldier  of  bad  character  and  shocking  ignorance,  into 
Ensign  Jebb  of  the  4th  Trinity  Company  of  the 
C.U.R.V.,  holding  Her  Majesty's  commission,  and 
wearing  a  sword  and  other  delights\..." 

His  first  youthful  fancy  had,  during  the  last  year, 
developed  into  an  absorbing  passion.  The  young 
girl  seems  to  have  been  kind  enough  to  him.  She 
was  a  cousin  of  cousins  of  his,  and,  one  way  and 
another,  he  was  able  to  meet  her  with  some  frequency. 

'  Later  he  became  lieutenant — the  highest  rank  he  reached. 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  41 

I  doubt  if  she  guessed  the  extent  of  his  interest  in 
her,  or  took  his  devotion  very  seriously.  He  was 
wretched  at  having  nothing  to  offer,  no  income  on 
which  he  could  propose  an  engagement.  Though 
still  only  nineteen,  he  did  not  seem  young  to  himself. 
There  was  nothing  in  his  own  feelings  to  tell  him 
they  would  be  short-lived ;  that  at  his  age  such 
wounds  heal  quickly.  I  suppose  some  such  ex- 
perience of  boyish  love  comes  to  most  men  ; — 

"And  some  give  thanks;   and  some  blaspheme; 
And  most  forget." 

But  Richard  J  ebb  never  took  anything  lightly  ; 
and,  though  this  first  strong  stirring  of  his  nature 
steadied  and  made  a  man  of  him  and  was  in  the 
long  run  an  unmixed  benefit,  keeping  him  clear  of 
love  affairs  through  the  years  when  a  man  is  most 
apt  to  act  rashly,  the  lesson  was  learnt  at  the  price 
of  very  real  suffering. 

To  Miss  Susan  J  ebb. 

"  Cambridge, 

March  'znd^  1861. 

I    am    not    happy:    a  feeling  of  loneliness 

which  cannot  be  expressed  is  upon  me  :  and  I  am 
conscious  that  the  want  of  spirits, — and  no  efforts 
can  command  them — is  rapidly  destroying  the  kind 
of  negative  popularity  I  enjoyed  before.  It  all  is 
intensely  painful,  but  I  bear  it,  having  a  faith  which 
it  is  difficult  to  express  in  words,  but  which  some- 
thing tells  me  is  true,  that  all  this  will  come  right 


42  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1861 

at  last,  and  that,  some  day,   I   shall  find  rest  and 
sympathy  and  perhaps  even  affection. 

Such  strange  and  sorrowful  longings  rise  in  my 
mind  as  day  by  day  spring  comes  on.  The  fresh- 
ness of  the  sunny  breezy  mornings  brings  back  this 
time  a  year  ago,  as  if  it  was  yesterday  ;  with  gleams 
of  every  feeling  that  belonged  to  that  happy  spring. 
I  remember  that  it  is  a  whole  year  since  we  were 
looking  forward  to  Easter  at  Boston,  and  how  the 
current  of  my  thoughts,  through  all  this  bright  sunny 
month,  flowed  to  that  exciting  hope.  I  remember 
my  efforts,  made  easy  by  that  inspiration,  to  be  free 
by  the  First  of  April — the  eager  happiness  of  the 
last  day — Sunday — before  my  departure  : — and  most 
of  all  the  sunny  morning  when  E.  and  I  met  in  the 
drawing-room  at  Boston.  Do  you  recollect  our 
drive  with  her  in  the  afternoon — the  first  of  so  many 
sunny  afternoons — when  you  could  not  tell  the  way 
home,  and  the  rustic  was  indignant  at  being  asked  ? 
As  I  look  back  on  it,  it  seems  incredible  that,  but 
one  short  year  ago,  all  these  things  were  delightful 
realities,  so  unspeakably  different  from  any  the  future 
now  promises. 

Ever  your  affectionate  cousin, 

Dick." 

Outwardly  his  life  in  College  went  on  as  usual. 
His  diary,  written  for  his  cousin,  is  a  record  of 
continual  parties  for  breakfast,  luncheon,  and  dinner, 
often  in  his  own  rooms.  Open  it  anywhere,  it  tells 
the  same  story. 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  43 

''Feb.  2yth.  After  a  morning  passed  in  the 
stereotyped  way,  I  took  a  walk  with  Henniker — 
one  of  the  first  acquaintances  I  made  up  here  ;  a 
man  I  particularly  admire....  We  walked  down  to 
the  river  and  saw  some  very  uninteresting  boat 
races.  Kingsley  was  striding  before  us  part  of  the 
way.  He  is  addicted  to  solitary  constitutionals, 
seemingly.  Every  line  of  his  face  and  every  move- 
ment expresses  vigour.  Henniker  dined  with  me, 
and  we  went  to  the  A.D.C.,  in  which  neither  of  us 
has  a  part  this  evening. 

Sat.  March  \st.  Breakfasted  with  Sidgwick. 
The  talk  was  an  argument  about  Church  Rates. 
Very  good." 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

''April  \oth,   1 86 1. 

To-day  my  mother  and  I  took  a  long  walk.  She 
is  an  emphatic  exception  to  the  rule  that  sympathy 
cannot  exist  between  a  young  man  and  his  family. 
The  experience  of  this  last  week  during  which  I 
have  been  very  much  in  her  society,  has  shown  me 
that  she  does  possess  with  reference  to  me  that 
something  which  makes  congeniality :  although  it 
does  not  present  itself  but  after  much  intimate 
confidence.  When  this  is  given  without  reserve, 
she  becomes  a  very  charming  friend,  and  reveals 
a  depth  of  thought  and  practical  wisdom  and  acute 
feeling,  which  would  never  be  suggested  to  a  stranger 
by  the  gaiety  and  naivete  of  her  manner. 

Did  not  my  last  letter  leave  us  on  the  brink  of  a 


44  •5'/r  Richard  J  ebb  [1861 

visitation  from  Mr  J.  ?  That  personage  arrived, 
favoured  by  that  special  Providence  of  bores  which 
invariably  renders  them  whole  and  perfect  unto  their 
friends.  It  never  rains  or  looks  like  rain;  Bradshaw 
never  lies ;  trains  never  come  to  grief  or  are  late  ; 
headaches,  colds,  sore-throats  keep  out  of  the  way  as 
carefully  as  policemen. 

Saturday  afternoon  my  mother  and  I  were  de- 
prived of  what  would  have  been  a  pleasant  stroll 
by  the  appearance  of  M.  whom  a  half-holiday  at 
St  Columba's  had  uncaged.  This  plain  Christian 
stayed  to  dinner,  and  greatly  edified  my  father  with 
conversation  which  would  do  honour  to  any  young 
man;  at  least  I  thought  so." 

"Cambridge, 

April  29//^,   1 86 1. 

The  days  here  drag  their  slow  length  through 
cricket  matches,  novels,  and  whist,  as  if  they  were 
trying  how  much  ennui  they  could  carry.  On  Friday 
there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Whist  Club  in  my  rooms. 
Including  visitors  we  had  three  tables  and  the  evening 
went  off  very  fairly.  The  next  night,  I  took  my  turn 
of  receiving  the  '  Society '  and  read  a  short  essay  on 
the  question  '  Are  the  turns  in  the  moral  race-course 
curves  or  angles  ? '  That  is,  are  moral  changes 
gradual  or  sudden  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  from  the 
nature  of  character,  depending  as  it  does  on  the  force 
of  habit,  which  in  turn  depends  on  an  infinite  series 
of  small  actions  and  incidents,  such  changes  must 
always  be  gradual.      It  is  true  there  are  moments 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  45 

of  strong  emotion,  never  forgotten,  from  which  we 
sometimes  date  a  new  era  of  our  inner  life.  But 
such  may  be  merely  vivid  revelations  of  a  change 
begun,  or  in  progress  ;  at  any  rate  they  cannot  be 
its  consummation.  For  it  is  as  difficult  to  conceive 
the  bent  of  a  disposition  altered  by  a  single  impulse, 
as  to  conceive  the  direction  of  a  branch's  growth 
altered  by  a  single  wrench.  Some  moments  in  the 
progress  of  a  moral  change  are  doubtless  more  in- 
fluential than  the  rest,  but  time  alone  can  fulfil  it 
perfectly. 

The  Rifle  Corps  paraded  to-day.  We  labour 
under  a  singular  disadvantage  at  present.  Our 
Colonel  has  become  an  author.  Military  education 
is  the  theme  which  bore  him  into  print.  The  two 
phases  of  his  life — soldier  and  undergraduate — have 
suggested  a  combination  of  Army  and  University. 
He  proposes  that  the  latter  should  become  the 
nursery  of  the  former :  establish  military  examina- 
tions and  award  military  fellowships.  This  would 
be  a  very  fine  thing  for  the  Army ;  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  it  would  not  be  rather  a  bad  thing 
for  the  University.  Government,  it  is  said,  smiles 
on  the  great  reformer ;  in  the  meantime  we  are  not 
drilled  quite  so  much  as  usual.  The  Inns  of  Court 
men  are  coming  down  to  drill  with  us  on  the  i8th  of 
May  ;  and  unless  we  make  a  stride,  it  will  be  a  day 
of  rebuke...." 

''May  d>th,  1861. 

On  Friday  I  again  went  to  Newmarket  to 
see   the   '  Thousand/   or  rather  to  see  the   motley 


46  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1861 

specimens  of  the  sporting  world  which  these  occasions 
bring  together.  Betting  men  are  certainly  the 
strangest  species  of  the  human  race  I  have  ever  seen. 
It  is  so  odd  to  see  that  racing  is  their  real  business, 
not  their  amusement,  and  to  hear  them  plying  their 
trade  with  a  serious  eagerness  which  one  associates 
only  with  graver  professions.  Then,  it  is  curious  to 
observe  men  in  whom  sharpness  is  preter-natu rally 
developed :  who  scorn  the  dull  common-places  of 
*  fiats '  and  express  more  in  a  syllable  or  a  wink  than 
the  rest  of  mankind  do  in  a  speech.  In  their  pre- 
sence, one  feels  a  consciousness,  bordering  on  the 
sublime,  of  profound  and  unlimited  mildness.  Albeit, 
the  effect  of  the  contrast  is  to  make  one  hug  one's 
own  verdant  simplicity.... 

On  Saturday  evening,  the  usual  meeting  of  the 
Society  came  off  in  Yates  Thompson's  rooms.  The 
question  discussed  referred  to  personal  dignity:  how 
far  it  should  be  maintained ;  and  whether  the  present 
age  is  deficient  in  dignity.  It  appears  to  me  that 
personal  dignity  consists  of  two  parts  :  regard  for 
one's  own  rights  and  regard  for  other  people's.  In 
an  official  capacity  one  must  look  especially  to  the 
former ;  in  a  private  capacity  especially  to  the  latter. 
For  instance  it  would  be  undignified  in  the  Head- 
master of  a  school  to  play  cricket  with  the  boys  in 
play  hour  ;  not  because  the  mere  act  would  demean 
him,  but  because  it  would  be  an  intrusion  on  them. 
I  defended  the  present  age  from  the  charge  of  being 
less  dignified  because  less  ceremonious  than  the  last. 
The  object  of  ceremony  is  to  maintain  reverence  for 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  47 

authority  by  appealing  to  the  imagination.  The  last 
century,  in  so  far  as  it  was  less  civilized  than  we  are, 
was  more  poetical ;  and  therefore  the  appeal  to  the 
imagination  was  more  successful  than  the  appeal  to 
the  understanding.  Now  it  is  no  longer  so.  The 
average  intelligence  is  higher  ;  therefore  it  is  less 
necessary  to  appeal  to  the  imagination  by  ceremonial 
forms.  It  is  the  fashion  to  say  that  the  literature  of 
the  present  day  is  too  undignified.  This  seems  to 
me  a  most  unfair  way  of  putting  it.  Fifty  years  ago, 
we  were  on  quite  different  terms  with  our  authors. 
The  acquaintance  was  of  the  most  formal  kind  ;  and 
instead  of  talking,  they  preached  to  us.  Now  we 
are  more  familiar  and  they  can  chaff  us.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  they  have  lost  any  of  their 
dignity. 

Yesterday  we  went  over  to  Babraham,  a  place 
about  six  miles  from  here,  to  see  a  cricket  match.  I 
was  looking  at  the  match  in  peace  and  content,  when 
on  turning  round,  I  saw  the  Prince  of  Wales  close 
by.  He  asked  when  I  had  come  up,  and  expressed 
some  faint  surprise  at  hearing  I  had  been  in  residence 
all  the  term.... 

The  Boat  Races  begin  this  evening.  This  year, 
for  the  first  time,  I  shall  enjoy  the  ease  and  dignity 
of  an  amateur  spectator.  I  am  sorry  that  my  Uni- 
versity career  must  close  without  the  accomplishment 
of  my  once  favourite  dream — a  reunion  of  friends  to 
see  the  Boat  Races.  Indeed  I  shall  long  be  haunted 
by  many  ungratified  visions  connected  with  this 
place.     I  came  up  here  too  young  and  restless.     But 


48  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1861 

regrets  do  no  good.  One's  business  is  with  the 
future,  not  with  the  past :  though  it  is  as  impossible 
to  do  away  with  its  influence  as  to  prevent  a  tree 
from  casting  a  shadow. 

So  you  enjoyed  Sydenham.  The  late  evenings 
in  summer,  when  the  gardens  were  deserted,  used  to 
be  delightful  to  my  Londonized  faculties.  I  used  to 
go  over  from  Charterhouse  to  stroll  about  the  solitary 
walks,  among  the  antediluvian  monsters,  nourishing 
a  youth  sublime  with  many  dreams  which  have  never 
come  to  pass  ;  but  I  did  not  know  what  was  destined 
then,  and  ignorance  was  real  bliss.  The  busts  of 
celebrities  which  line  the  walks  in  the  Palace,  were 
great  favourites  with  me  :  but  the  Alhambra  and  the 
Grecian  Court  were  my  Elysium. 

Do  you  know  the  legend  of  Mr  Marjoribanks 
having  first  proposed  to  Fanny  among  the  mam- 
moths and  crocodiles  of  Sydenham,  and  having 
been  refused^  ? 

Are  you  going  to  see  the  Colleen  Bawn?  Uncle 
Richard  informed  me  the  other  day  of  a  curious  fact ; 
viz.,  that  my  grandfather  was  the  judge  who  tried 
and  passed  sentence  on  the  principal  in  the  historical 
transaction " 

"  Cambridge, 

May  22nd,  1 86 1. 

My  last  letter  left  the  Boat  Races  at  a  crisis; 

First  Trinity  having  lost  its  place  at  the  Head  of  the 

^  This  decision,  it  is  pleasant  to  know,  was  afterwards,  in  less 
terrifying  surroundings,  reversed. 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  49 

River  on  the  sixth  night,  had  failed  to  regain  it  on 
the  seventh.  The  final  race  on  Thursday,  the  eighth 
and  last  night,  was  expected  with  great  curiosity  in 
both  the  boating  and  the  betting  world.  Large 
sums  depended  on  the  issue.  A  current  report  that, 
on  the  seventh  evening,  First  Trinity  had  abstained 
from  bumping  Third  Trinity  on  prudential  grounds, 
was  not  generally  believed.  It  was  remarked  on  the 
other  hand,  that  *  First '  had  rowed  with  more  sus- 
tained strength  than  their  opponents,  whose  chances 
of  escape  in  the  deciding  race  were  thought  to  depend 
mainly  on  their  genius  for  'spurting'  at  the  right 
moment.  The  evening  was  fine  :  I  never  saw  such 
a  muster  on  the  banks.  *  Grassy,'  a  corner  of  meadow 
land  jutting  into  the  course,  was  crowded  to  the 
water's  edge  with  the  nondescript  vehicles  hired  by 
University  men  for  their  friends.  A  few  languid 
swells  on  their  'camels,'  a  small  minority  of  boating 
men  too  lazy  to  run  with  the  race,  a  sprinkling  of  un- 
mistakeable  townsmen  carefully  got  up  and  smoking 
questionable  cigars,  moved  about  among  the  carriages 
and  '  traps.'  On  the  opposite  bank,  a  slow  stream  of 
many-coloured  jerseys,  denoting  as  many  different 
Clubs,  interspersed  with  amateurs  in  mufti  and 
mighty  Dons  in  blameless  black,  was  setting  towards 
the  start.  As  the  time  becomes  short,  the  stream 
has  ceased  to  flow.  A  large  group,  assembled  at 
the  angle  of  the  towing-path  corresponding  to  Grassy, 
is  prepared  to  take  up  the  running  from  that  point. 
They  are  looking  quietly  towards  a  bend  of  the  river 
some  fifty  yards  lower  down.     Round  that  bend  the 

J.  M.  4 


50  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  \}'^^^ 

boats  will  appear  in  five  minutes  more.  It  conceals 
a  crowd  who,  at  this  moment,  are  distributed  at  the 
starting  posts  of  the  various  boats,  advising,  helping, 
encouraging,  or  obstructing. 

A  gun.  '  First  gun  ! '  says  a  man  at  Grassy  to 
his  neighbour,  and  takes  out  his  watch.  One  minute 
gone.  Two  gone.  Half  a  minute  left.  Another 
gun.  '  Second  gun  ! '  say  the  men  at  Grassy.  Talk- 
ing dwindles  to  monosyllables,  and  the  Corner  is 
stared  out  of  countenance.  Presently,  some  obscure 
individual,  who  has  been  giving  his  whole  mind  to 
his  watch,  starts  into  momentary  greatness  by 
announcing  '  Ten  seconds  left '  :  and  begins  telling 
them  off,  somewhat  grudgingly,  as  if  he  had  a  strong 
motive  for  economy  in  the  fact  that,  while  they  last, 
he  is  the  Man  of  the  period.  He  ceases — a  pause — 
a  thrill — the  gun.  '  They're  off.'  From  round  the 
corner,  feeble  and  conventional  cries  of  '  well  started ' 
or  *well  rowed,'  by  which  the  ear  knows  that  there 
is  no  excitement  yet.  Every  eye  is  on  the  Corner. 
In  eight  seconds,  which  seem  a  week,  a  pointed  slip 
of  wood  and  a  white  jersey  peep  round.  Third 
Trinity  swings  into  view — will  First  never  come  .'^ 
Here  are  the  striped  jerseys  : — they  are  gaining ; 
but  not  much.  Their  long,  hard,  steady  strokes 
have  an  air  of  weariless  strength,  but  look  at  Third 
Trinity — all  slighter  men,  but  springing  to  their 
short  sharp  strokes  as  if  they  were  inspired  incar- 
nations of  Pluck  ;  is  the  course  long  enough  for 
strength  to  gain  forty  feet  on  quicksilver  ? 

The  rival  crowds — now  almost  mingled  by  the 


i86i]  Undergraduate  Years  51 

increasing  proximity  of  their  boats — roar  along, 
howling  and  raging  with  excitement.  Grassy  goes 
raving  mad.  The  interval  is  closing  and  closing, 
surely  and  steadily  as  fate.  Now  for  Ditton  Corner, 
— First  Trinity  will  steer  inside,  and  may  bump. 
They  are  going  round — the  nose  of  the  pursuer  is 
thrust  between  its  intended  victim  and  the  bank — 
suddenly,  it  shoots  onwards  towards  its  prey — the 
coxswain  is  going  to  take  a  shot !  an  awful  moment 
— and  darts  past  the  stern  of  Third  Trinity.  He 
has  missed ! 

Now  they  will  escape.  Off  they  go  with 
something  like  their  hereditary  *  spurt.'  But  First 
Trinity  is  tearing  after  them  like  a  disappointed 
Fury.  The  yells  of  the  crowd  are  passionate  with 
the  ecstasy  of  the  crisis.  But  now  a  thrilling  change 
is  coming  over  the  great  roar  of  voices.  A  moment 
ago  they  expressed  excitement — now,  they  are  be- 
ginning to  express  triumph.  You  rush  on,  out  of 
breath.  The  voices  are  more  exultant  every  instant. 
Suddenly — as  they  start  up  to  the  sky  in  one  great 
impulsive  burst — your  ear  tells  you  that  the  crowd 
has  ceased  running.  First  Trinity  is  Head  of  the 
River ! 

I  had  almost  forgotten  to  mention  the  Volunteer 
Review  on  Saturday.  The  Inns  of  Court  Corps 
came  down  about  350  strong,  and  were  inspected 
with  us  by  Colonel  M'Murdo.  Parker's  Piece,  the 
scene  of  operations,  was  fringed  with  a  dense  crowd 
of  carriages  and  people  on  foot,  who  seemed  to  be 
as  much  alive  to  the  ridiculous  as  the  sublime  in  the 

4—2 


5  2  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1861 

pomp  of  war  that  they  beheld.  Two  or  three 
colonels  and  generals  and  a  sprinkling  of  gay  volun- 
teer specimens,  made  rather  a  showy  thing  of  the 
review,  in  which  we  secured  the  high  praise  of 
almost  equalling  his  nether  Majesty's  Own." 

The  long  vacation  of  1861  was  passed  chiefly  in 
Ireland.  Jebb  had  intended  to  join  a  reading  party 
of  his  friends  in  County  Mayo,  but  an  unusually  severe 
attack  of  hay-fever  made  it  desirable  for  him  to  keep 
as  much  as  possible  within  doors. 

Early  in  October  he  went  up  to  Cambridge,  but 
only  to  make  arrangements  for  absence.  Permission 
had  been  given  him  to  spend  this  term  at  Desmond, 
Killiney,  away  from  the  distractions  of  University 
life  and  societies.  The  Tripos  was  coming  peri- 
lously near ;  and  if  he  was  to  work  in  earnest  for 
it,  this  was  his  last  chance. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"  Cambridge, 

October  22nd. 

I  arrived  here  this  evening,  and  hope  to  take  my 
departure  on  Thursday.  My  feelings  at  this  moment 
are  precisely  those  which  I  used  to  experience  on 
returning  to  school ;  namely,  a  vague  impression  that 
everybody  talks  loud,  and  that  everything  smells 
strongly  of  paint.  There  is  a  severe  emptiness  about 
places  intended  for  the  occupation  of  the  male  sex 
only,  which  probably  causes  these  effects.... My  reso- 
lution to  stay  at  home  is  quite  in  the  style  of  Brutus 


i86i]  Undergraduate   Years  53 

and  Cato  ;  but  it  is  a  last  chance.  I  have  just  been 
hearing  a  dismal  account  of  the  reading  party  in 
Mayo,  which  I  was  to  have  joined.  The  accommo- 
dation was  miserable,  even  for  an  Irish  wilderness, 
and  though  each  of  the  studious  epicures  brought  a 
hamper  from  Fortnum  and  Mason's,  the  discomfort 
was  only  less  than  the  slowness.  Fancy  being  penned 
up  in  a  porous  cottage  for  a  week  of  heavy  rain  at  a 
time,  with  nothing  to  do  but  read.  Trevelyan,  who 
like  Tancred's  valet  '  likes  his  meals  regular,'  was 
eloquent  on  their  siifferings " 

He  writes  later  from  Killiney :  ''  The  last  event 
was  the  opening  of  Mr  Bell's  church.  Archbishop 
Whately  preached  the  opening  sermon.  The  old 
man  shook  with  paralysis,  while  he  was  speaking 
with  the  clear  calm  face,  and  the  indescribable 
self-possession  that  never  fails  a  real  master  of 
argument :  it  seemed  as  if  his  Mind  had  come 
down  by  train  to  preach  without  noticing  it  had 
not  put  on  its  best   Body. 

I  am  nothing  but  exemplary  from  morning  till 
night ;  but  it  is  truly  refreshing  to  think  what  a  new 
leaf  I  will  turn  over  when  I  have  taken  my  degree " 

"  Killiney, 

December  2^th^   1861. 

I  came  down  this  morning  with  a  dim  suspicion 
that  I  was  not  in  a  holly-and-ivy  frame  of  mind; 
and  found  your  letter.  It  really  had  the  effect  of 
converting  December  25  into  Christmas-day. 


54  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1862 

We  keep  up  the  old  fashion  of  Christmas  presents ; 
and  the  twins  are  already  armed  cap  a  pie  with  toys 
offensive  and  defensive, — if  one  may  so  class  the 
resources  of  the  young  unemployed.  I  gave  them 
fireworks,  for  two  reasons.  First,  they  are  soon  over  ; 
secondly,  there  is  a  chance  of  some  one  being  blown 
up,  which  is  a  warm  Christmas  feeling." 

The  next  letter  is  written  directly  after  the 
examination  for  the  Tripos,  when,  with  brain  tired 
by  the  steady  exertion  of  the  previous  months  of 
unremitting  study,  and  by  that  of  the  examination 
itself,  he  gave  way  to  the  utmost  despondency. 

'■^February  24M,   1862. 

My  Dear  Susan, 

Do  not  mention  what  I  am  going  to  tell 
you.  I  want  to  save  you  some  disappointment.  I 
have  failed  utterly  in  the  Examination.  I  expected 
something  of  the  sort,  but  all  has  turned  out  worse 
than  I  thought  for.  For  myself  I  don't  care — it 
matters  very  little — but  it  makes  me  wretched  to 
think  what  a  disappointment  is  in  store  for  my 
people.  I  have  written  to  them,  trying  to  prepare 
them  for  it — and  shall  go  home  at  once,  and  do  all  I 
can  to  reconcile  them  to  such  a  miserable  result. 
But  it  will  be  hard  work — my  father  has  an  excessive 
notion  of  University  honours. 

I  feel  sure  that  it  is  all  over  with  me.  I  suppose 
I  shall  go  to  India.  This  is  paying  with  a  vengeance 
for  three  years'  idleness  at  the  time  when  life  is  most 


1862]  Undergraduate   Years  55 

enjoyable.... Excuse  this  scrawl.      I  am  hurried  with 
preparations  for  departure. 

Your  affectionate  cousin, 

R.  C.  Jebb." 

When  the  list  came  out  he  was  Senior  Classic, 
with  a  wide  margin  above  the  next  man.  But  for 
an  unlucky  mistake  in  translating  some  verses  in  a 
different  metre  from  the  one  prescribed,  his  total 
would  have  been  so  high,  one  of  the  examiners  told 
him,  that  a  line  would  have  been  drawn  under  his 
name. 

"  I  dare  say  you  think  I  was  shamming  a  little," 
he  writes  to  his  mother,  '*  when  I  professed  so  much 
despondency.  I  can  only  tell  you  that  I  was  most 
sincerely  alarmed  about  my  place,  and  am  still  entirely 
at  a  loss  to  imagine  how  I  came  out  so  well." 

He  took  his  degree  on  the  27th  of  March,  after 
which  he  went  on  a  round  of  visits  to  Firbeck  Hall, 
to  Wickersley,  to  Boston,  happy  to  be  again  among 
so  many  affectionate  relations,  in  the  best  of  spirits 
now  that  the  incubus  which  had  weighed  so  heavily 
was  removed. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

FELLOWSHIP  AND  COLLEGE  WORK. 

TOUR  IN  EGYPT. 

1862— 1864. 

The  spring  and  summer  were  spent  partly  at 
Harrow,  whither  he  went  to  take  up  the  duties  of  an 
Assistant  Master  for  one  term,  and  partly  abroad. 

In  the  autumn  he  came  up  to  Cambridge  to 
lecture  under  very  unusual  circumstances.  After 
such  a  degree  it  was  natural  that  he  should  expect 
to  be  elected  a  Fellow.  But  the  Master  and  Senior 
Fellows,  in  whose  hands  the  election  rested,  rejected 
him  while  taking  a  man  of  his  own  year,  much 
below  him  in  academic  distinction.  No  doubt  they 
thought  him  young  enough  to  wait ;  but  to  him  it 
seemed  an  injustice,  even  an  affront.  A  good  deal 
of  indignation  was  felt  by  some  of  the  younger 
Fellows,  and  at  least  one  of  the  Seniors  thought  he 
had  good  reason  to  feel  hurt.  "  Romilly,  one  of  the 
Seniors,"  he  writes  to  his  mother  on  October  ist 
"  (though  not  an  examiner  this  time  and  personally 
unknown  to  me),  wrote  me  a  very  kind  note,  to-day, 


1862]  Felloivship  and  College   Work  57 

in  which  he  said,  '  I  was  much  surprised  as  well  as 
grieved  that  you  were  not  elected  this  morning,  as 
all  the  University  expected  you  would  be '  (pretty 
strong  that  for  a  Senior  of  Trinity )....Trevelyan  is 
justly  indignant  at  their  treatment  of  him.  I  doubt 
if  he  will  stand  again \" 

J  ebb  was  very  angry,  with  the  anger  of  hurt 
affection  :  he  loved  his  College  and  she  had  snubbed 
him.  All  kinds  of  ideas  filled  his  head.  If  Trinity 
would  not  have  him,  there  were  other  Colleges  where 
he  would  be  welcomed.  He  was  barely  twenty- 
one  and  youth  is  rash  ;  his  friends  felt  something 
besides  pure  reason  must  be  applied  to  the  wound. 
A  scheme  was  formed  whereby  he  might  still  come 
up  to  his  own  College  in  the  October  term  ;  and  it 
was  very  nicely  put.  The  Tutors  of  Trinity  proposed 
that  he  should  lecture  as  a  Scholar  to  a  picked  class 
of  men,  offering  him  the  salary  of  an  assistant  tutor. 
This  was  not  permitted  by  the  Seniors,  there  being 
no  precedent  for  it ;  but  some  arrangement  must 
have  been  found  possible,  for  he  writes  to  his 
mother  on  November  2nd  from  Cambridge : 

''...My  duties  as  a  lecturer  began  on  Thursday 
and  hitherto  everything  has  gone  smoothly.  The 
Seniors  at  first  objected  to  my  having  the  use  of  a 
lecture  room  ;  but  have  been  induced  to  yield  ; — much 
to  my  satisfaction,  as  it  brings  out  the  singularity  of 
my  position  in  strong  relief." 

^  Sir  George  Trevelyan  did  not  stand  again,  and  Trinity  never 
enrolled  his  name  in  its  list  of  Fellows.  Many  years  later  he  was 
chosen  an  Honorary  Fellow  of  the  College. 


58  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1862 

To  HIS  Mother. 

'^November  id>th,  1862. 

...My  life  for  the  past  fortnight  has  been  far  too 
exemplary  to  be  made  amusing.  Trevelyan  gave  a 
farewell  dinner  last  night.  He  goes  down  on  the 
26th  and  sails  for  India  on  the  4th.  The  Dons  affect 
to  think  him  foolish  for  not  waiting  another  year  for 
a  Trinity  Fellowship.  His  position  in  India  will 
not  be  so  definite  and  official  as  that  which  the 
Secretary  to  the  Governor  of  Madras  would  have 
held  ;  but  it  will  be  a  rare  opportunity  for  learning 
habits  of  business/' 

He  had  often  attempted  to  keep  a  diary,  but  was 
too  much  bored  by  the  effort  until  the  happy  thought 
occurred  to  him  to  include  in  his  letters  to  Miss  Susan 
Jebb  a  daily  record^  of  his  occupations.  Where  fancy 
or  wit  had  play,  he  could  picture  her  smile  or  com- 
ment, and  writing  for  sympathetic  eyes  would  be 
amusing.  The  love  affair  by  this  time  had  dropped 
out  of  sight.  Hard  work  in  the  autumn  of  1861, 
by  absorbing  all  his  faculties,  had  perhaps  given  it 
its  death  blow.  There  is  no  further  mention  of  the 
young  lady  except  once  a  message  sent  through 
Susan  on  the  death  of  her  father ; — ''  I  would  wish 
dear  E.  to  know  from  you  that  she  has  the  sympathy 
of  an  old  friend  in  her  bereavement."  The  full  con- 
fidence and  happiness  in  his  friendship  with  Susan 
continue.     The  letters  to  his  cousin  exhibit  his  wit 

^  He  jestingly  named  this  record  "  Footprints  on  the  sands  of 
time,  by  a  young  man  all  sole." 


1862]  Fellowship  and  College   Work  59 

in  the  form  most  natural  to  him,  a  combination  of 
pure  fun  and  delicate  irony.  There  is  no  ill-nature 
or  sarcasm  ;  unless  when  he  was  very  angry  his  wit 
was  never  caustic  or  bitter. 

The  lectures  had  gone  off  well,  and  at  Christmas 
he  was  again  in  Ireland.  On  December  22nd  he 
writes  to  Susan,  who  seems  to  have  been  remiss  on 
her  part. 

"  KiLLINEY, 

December  2  2nd^   1862. 

Dear  Madam, 

Considering  the  time  you  took  to  answer 
my  last  letter  I  decided  on  rejecting  your  request 
for  a  communication  before  I  left  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  though  I  had  plenty  of  time  to  write, 
and  a  good  deal  to  say  :  and  now,  being  in  a  desert 
island,  and  having  forgotten  everything  I  ever  knew 
about  anything,  I  sit  down,  not  to  amuse,  but  to 
instruct  you.... 

Tiny  and  I  are  going  to  Killarney  on  the  29th, 
In  the  meantime,  I  am  going  to  take  the  twins  and 
Tye  to  the  pantomime,  and  General  Colomb  and 
Colonel  and  Mrs  Mackenzie  are  going  with  us.  Wait 
till  you  are  as  old  as  I  am,  and  you  will  like  to  see 
young  people  amused.  When  I  was  in  London  I 
went  to  the  Westminster  Play,  which,  as  you  probably 
know,  is  always  a  Latin  Play,  from  Terence  or 
Plautus.  The  thing  I  most  admired  was  the  ad- 
mirable provision  for  applause,  which  is  secured  by 
a  standing  army  of  'gods.'  The  gods  are  town 
boys.     They  stand  on  a  plank  at  the  top  of  a  tier  of 


6o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1863 

seats.  They  are  under  the  command  of  the  god- 
keeper,  who  has  a  cane  ;  and  when  the  gods  are  to 
signify  their  unbiassed  approbation,  the  god-keeper 
waves  the  cane  ;  and  if  the  gods  are  not  immediately 
struck  with  the  dramatic  merits  of  what  is  going  on, 
they  know  why  next  morning.  By  that  system  of 
double  government  which  Is  so  fruitful  of  tyranny 
but  so  admirable  in  its  results,  the  god-keeper  is 
himself  responsible  for  the  acuteness  of  artistic  feeling 
shewn  by  the  gods :  and  is  not  unfrequently  thrashed 
within  an  inch  of  his  life,  if  the  deities  are  obtuse. 

I  dined  with  Thackeray  the  other  day,  at  his 
house  in  Kensington  Gardens ;  and  had  a  very 
pleasant  evening.... After  dinner  the  whole  party, 
including  two  Miss  Thackerays  and  another  lady, 
moved  into  his  library  where  the  men  were  allowed 
to  smoke  cigars  :  then  the  lamps  were  turned  down, 
and  we  sat  round  a  stove,  and  told  ghost  stories...." 

The  means  found  for  restoring  peace  had  proved 
efficacious.  He  came  up  in  the  Lent  term  as  usual, 
took  some  pupils,  did  some  College  work,  saw  a 
good  deal  of  his  friends,  according  to  his  wont, 
and  studied  in  the  intervals.  The  "  Footprints " 
for  his  cousin  are  in  the  customary  tone  of  playful 
affection. 

In  February  Miss  Ada  Bateman,  the  youngest 
daughter  in  a  family  of  intimate  friends,  whom  he 
met  frequently  at  Firbeck  Hall  and  often  visited  at 
their  own  house,  was  to  be  married.  He  had  been 
asked  to  be  one  of   the  groomsmen — the  number 


1863]  Fellowship  and  College   Work  61 

was  to  be  eight — and  as  it  was  the  first  time  he  had 
ever  held  office  at  a  wedding  he  anticipated  a  good 
deal  of  pleasure  from  the  occasion.  He  was  to  stay 
for  some  days  at  West  Leake,  the  home  of  the 
Batemans ;  other  young  people  would  be  there ; 
the  conditions  lent  themselves  to  visions  of  gaiety. 
His  experiences  produced  a  letter  to  Susan,  who, 
being  in  mourning,  was  kept  away. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"  Cambridge, 

February  I'jth,   1863. 

...My  arduous  task  is  before  me — to  give 
an  account  of  the  wedding  to  the  hostess  of  a 
bridesmaid.  The  prospect  is  disheartening  ;  I  am 
sure  you  must  have  heard  the  whole  affair  very  well 
described  ;  so  I  intend  to  confine  myself  to  points 
which  a  bridesmaid  might  possibly  overlook. 

(i)  The  hour  at  which  Mr  R.  C.  J.  rose  on 
Thursday,  the  12th.  This  gentleman  got  up  at  8.30, 
sorely  against  his  will ;  but  he  knew  that  he  would 
not  get  any  breakfast  if  he  was  not  downstairs  at 
9.30.  The  groomsmen  were  assembled  in  the  house- 
keeper's room ;  the  bridegroom  wore  that  air  of 
desperate  resignation  common  to  persons  in  his 
awful  position,  and  feebly  carved  a  ham  for  such 
as  could  eat.  Of  the  latter  number  was  Mr  R.  C.  J.  ; 
but  he  partook  of  brawn. ...Then  we  all  smoked  in 
the  garden,  and  wondered  what  the  bridesmaids  had 
for  breakfast,  and  why  they  took  so  long  to  get 
themselves  up. 


62  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1863 

The  dance  on  Thursday  evening  was  pleasant 
enough,  but  rather  too  crowded  at  first.  I  think  I 
enjoyed  more  than  anything  the  walk  on  Friday 
morning,  over  the  Fox  Hills,  as  they  call  them. 
It  was  a  lovely  morning. 

We  were  lonely,  as  you  may  imagine,  after  the 
departures  on  Saturday.  I  walked  back  from  the 
station  with  the  Miss  Batemans,  and  they  read  out 
for  my  benefit  some  of  the  congratulatory  notes 
received  by  that  morning's  post.  A  very  indifferent 
lot !  (Yours  was  one  of  them,  I  think.)  Miss  Abney 
left  the  same  afternoon  ;  and  the  Miss  B.'s,  seeing 
what  low  spirits  we  were  in,  sent  out  Alfred  B., 
Miss  Shewell,  and  me  for  a  walk.  I  have  a  dim 
recollection  of  talking  about  Indian  jugglers,  and 
entirely  coinciding  with  all  Miss  Shewell's  views 
about  Central  Africa,  and  Verbal  Inspiration.  Music 
was  the  order  of  the  evening. 

At  Cambridge  some  of  my  luggage  was  missing; 
but  the  Inspector  has  telegraphed  up  and  down  the 
line  for  it,  and  I  expect  to  get  it  soon :  and  I  scarcely 
regret  the  temporary  deprivation,  as  it  was  the 
occasion  of  my  overhearing  a  fine  piece  of  irony. 

Official  (To  Passenger  in  the  Bottomless  Pit 
at  the  Cambridge  station,  vainly  looking  for  his 
luggage). 

'  Well,  Sir  ?  What  have  you  come  here  for. 
Sir?' 

Passenger  (bitterly).    *  To  see  a  thing  done  slow.' 

(Official  collapses.) 


1863]  Fellowship  and  College  Work  63 

My  only  apology  for  such  an  unconscionably 
long  letter  Is  that  I  am  very  busy,  and  ought  to 
have  written  a  short  one." 


^^  March  2nd^   1863. 

I  am  coming  round  to  the  belief  that,  if  one  keeps 
a  journal  at  all,  it  should  be  something  more  than  a 
diary  of  facts.  The  severity  of  my  style  in  diary 
keeping  has  become  such  that  on  reading  over  a 
week  of  it,  I  find  that  the  record  has  been  most 
successfully  divested  of  all  human  associations,  and 
reads  like  an  analysis  of  the  weather.  When 
Macaulay  was  at  Rome  for  the  first  time,  Trevelyan 
once  told  me,  he  kept  a  journal  of  wonderful 
minuteness — meant  of  course  for  his  strictly  private 
delectation — which  was  as  carefully  written  as  any- 
thing he  published.  The  objection  to  such  an 
attempt  by  a  person  leading  an  unexciting  life,  and 
without  much  time  for  private  reading,  would  be 
that  he  would  infallibly  fall  into  the  way  of  attribu- 
ting a  certain  number  of  elevated  feelings  to  himself 
per  diem  for  the  sake  of  describing  them  ;  nor,  if  he 
thought  the  Wednesday  sensations  particularly  fine, 
would  he  perhaps  abstain  from  shewing  them  to  his 
sister  or  cousin.  On  the  whole  I  am  resigned  to 
despairing  of  even  the  middle  course,  the  hardest 
of  all,  and  acquiesce  in  the  Meteorological  Report. 

On  Saturday  the  '  Society '  met  in  my  rooms, 
and  I  read  an  Essay  on  a  subject  of  my  own 
devising,   '  Is  Taste  reducible  to  a  science  .-* '      My 


64  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1863 

conclusion  affirmed  the  question  within  limits  ;  and 
a  majority  concurred.  The  Apostles  certainly  have 
one  peculiar  facility  for  sifting  general  questions  : 
familiarity  with  each  other's  modes  of  thinking  and 
experiences  allows  much  to  be  taken  for  granted, 
and  the  kernel  of  the  matter  to  be  reached  at 
once " 

On  October  9th  Jebb  was  elected  to  a  Fellow- 
ship at  Trinity  College,  and  was  duly  admitted  a 
day  or  two  later,  returning  to  Cambridge  for  that 
purpose  from  a  very  pleasant  visit  to  Mr  Arthur 
Strutt  at  Kingston.  Mr  Heathcote  and  Mr  Currey 
were  also  at  Kingston,  and  the  four  friends  were 
glad  to  have  an  opportunity  to  complete  their 
plans   for  a  tour  in   Egypt  and  Syria. 

To  Miss  Susan  Jebb. 

"Cambridge, 

October  2^th,  1863. 

You  will  perhaps  be  curious  to  hear  the  pro- 
gramme of  this  Eastern  expedition.  Currey  and 
Strutt  have  just  gone  to  Rome,  and  will  spend  the 
next  month  in  Italy  and  Sicily.  Heathcote  and  I 
leave  England  by  the  P.  &  O.  steamer  on  Decem- 
ber 1 2th.  At  Malta  we  shall  be  joined  by  the 
others  and  shall  reach  Alexandria  about  Christmas- 
day.  Allowing  five  days  for  the  dragoman's  pre- 
parations, we  propose  to  start  up  the  Nile  on 
January  ist,  and  to  go  as  far  as  the  first  Cataract. 
We  shall  reach  Cairo  on  our  return  not  later  than 


1863]  Tour  in  Egypt  65 

February  15th,  and  start  as  soon  as  possible  across 
the  desert.  We  hope  to  see  Sinai,  and  to  arrive  at 
Jerusalem  about  the  middle  of  March.  Here  two 
other  members  of  the  'Tea  Club,'  Lord  John  Hervey 

and  Coore,  will  join  us One  month  will  enable 

us  to  see  something  of  Palestine,  including,  we  hope, 
Palmyra  and  Damascus.  Then  Constantinople  ;  then 
Greece.     About  June  ist  we  shall  turn  homeward." 

The  Eastern  tour  began  auspiciously  on  Decem- 
ber 1 2th,  1863.  The  weather  was  good,  Jebb  was 
quite  well  at  sea  and  much  enjoyed  the  voyage. 
At  Malta,  he  and  Mr  Heathcote  were  joined  by 
Mr  Strutt  and  Mr  Currey,  and  the  four  proceeded 
in  the  "  Ceylon "  to  Alexandria,  and  thence  by 
train  to  Cairo.  Here,  or  rather  at  Alexandria,  their 
dragoman  mounted  guard  over  their  luggage,  and 
except  paying  him,  they  had  no  care  whatever.  He 
contracted  to  provide  them  with  everything  requisite 
for  an  expedition  to  the  first  Cataract,  and  to  charge 
them  only  £\.  5^.  a  head  per  day,  he  to  pay  all 
backshish.  While  strolling  in  the  streets  of  Cairo 
they  had  several  slight  adventures.  On  one  occasion 
"  We^  called  on  a  real  live  Bey  to  whom  Strutt  had 
an  introduction  ;  and  before  we  were  admitted  there 
was  an  audible  scuffle :  it  was  the  harem  being 
bundled  upstairs.  The  Bey  received  us  courteously  ; 
he  was  well-informed,  enlightened,  etc.,  and  told  us 
a  great  deal  about  cotton,  and  something  about  flax, 
but  his  enlightenment  was  nothing  to  his  tobacco. 
*  Letter  to  his  mother,  January  5,   1864. 

J.  M.  5 


66  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1863 

We  sat  on  one  divan  and  he  on  an  opposite  one  ;  he 
did  not  clap  his  hands,  but  menials,  who  it  is  sweet 
to  think  may  have  been  slaves,  did  bring  coffee  and 
presented  long  pipes,  and  we  smoked  the  remarkable 
fine  mild  Turkish  of  a  real,  live,  palpable  Osmanli. 
Still,  I  bear  him  one  grudge — he  might  have  clapped 
his  hands ;  and  perhaps  a  person  with  some  con- 
sideration for  others  would  have  had  slaves  with 
silver  anklets. 

One  great  peril  encompasses  the  romantic  traveller 
at  this  point  of  his  journey — it  is  an  arduous  task 
to  breast  the  tide  of  cockneyism  which  surges  in 
from  Southampton,  and  with  one's  Herodotus  and 
Wilkinson  between  one's  teeth  to  bear  one's  illusions 
scatheless  to  the  pillars  of  Karnak.  You  feel  that 
if  you  were  only  at  Thebes — if  you  had  but  the 
Memnon  statue  or  a  Colossus  or  so,  or  a  few  thou- 
sand hawk-headed  deities,  you  could  bear  up  better. 

I  have  bought  a  pipe  which  I  think  will  astonish 
you  some  fine  morning  in  June.  When  I  bought  it, 
I  was  distinctly  picturing  to  myself  how  we  should 
go  out  after  breakfast  and  sit  in  the  iron  chair  in  the 
garden  and  talk  heterodoxy. 

How  I  long  to  hear  from  you!  I  think  of  you 
all  constantly.  Ah,  how  I  wish  we  were  together 
here !  I  trust  this  is  the  last  long  separation,  as  it  is 
the  first  we  have  ever  had.  In  spite  of  all  the 
variety  of  new  things  about  me,  I  am  very  often  as 
homesick  as  a  boy  in  his  first  week  at  school.  It 
seems  so  dreary  to  be  divided  from  you  all  by  so 
many    thousand    miles.       Explain    to    the    darling 


1864]  Tour  in  Egypt  67 

people  at  Danesfort  that  this  letter  is  for  all  of  you. 
Much  as  I  wish  to  write  a  great  many  letters  there 
is  not  time." 

Here  at  Cairo  they  saw  the  Great  Pyramid  for 
the  first  time. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

^^  January  Zth^  1864. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  moment  when  the 
presence  of  the  oldest  monument  in  the  world  broke 
upon  us.  You  do  not  see  it  from  the  shore,  but  on 
the  second  morning  of  our  stay  on  board  our  boat,  I 
was  taking  a  listless  survey  of  the  town  and  harbour, 
when,  suddenly,  as  my  eye  rested  on  the  western 
bank,  there  was  the  form  so  long  familiar  standing 
up  in  awful  reality  against  the  speckless  sky,  the 
same  to  my  eye  as  when  Abraham  looked  upon  it 
four  thousand  years  ago.  It  is  worth  coming  3,000 
miles  to  experience  the  sensation  of  awe,  perhaps 
momentary,  which  for  that  moment  at  least  enables 
one  to  conceive  the  inconceivable,  as  one  stands  face 
to  face  with  some  unchanged  witness  of  the  primeval 
world." 

Their  voyage  up  to  the  Cataract,  which  began  on 
January  9th,  was  marked  by  no  untoward  incidents, 
and  all  explorations  were  left  for  the  down  journey. 
Assouan  was  the  end  of  the  actual  voyage,  but,  as 
all  travellers  do,  they  went  on  to  the  Island  of 
Philae,  taking  the  universal  donkey  for  the  seven 
miles  to  be  traversed  from  Assouan. 


68  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1864 

To  HIS  Mother. 
**As  you  round  a  slight  bend  in  your  path  along 

the  eastern  bank Philae  is  before  you.     There 

is — or  at  least  so  I  thought — something  very  grand 
and  beautiful  in  the  scene  that  opens  here  ;  the  rocks 
are  even  more  picturesque  in  form  and  grouping, 
the  background  bolder ;  and  the  few  palms  and 
partial  verdure  of  the  sacred  island  give  a  pleasant 
resting  place  to  the  eye.  Indeed,  I  was  so  engrossed 
by  the  coup  ctceily  that  it  was  a  moment  before  I 
observed  the  central  wonder  of  the  scene.  From 
the  centre  of  Philae,  of  a  pale  brown  against  the 
dark  rugged  background,  rise  the  perfect  and  majestic 
towers  of  an  Egyptian  temple — not  our  Western 
notion  of  towers — but  those  massive  piles,  like 
pyramids  with  their  apex  taken  off,  that  stand  on 
each  side  of  the  gateway  in  the  temples  of  ancient 
Egypt,  and  were  once  approached  through  a  long 
avenue  of  Sphinxes.  Somehow  that  first  glimpse  of 
those  two  great  towers,  and  the  buildings  behind 
them,  at  a  distance  which  quite  disguised  the  ravages 
of  time,  in  a  neighbourhood  so  unutterably  wild,  so 
absolutely  remote  from  all  other  associations  of  a 
great  and  powerful  civilisation — that  first  glimpse 
probably  brought  me  nearer  to  some  dim  realization 
of  Ancient  Egypt  than  the  less  lonely  splendours  of 

Luxor  and  Karnak  could  ever  do I  think  one 

of  the  facts  which  first  struck  me  most  was  the 
colossal   size   of  the    figures  graven  on   the   walls, 

exterior  and  interior And,  once  for  all,  I  must 

state — for    I    cannot    explain — the    quite    peculiar 


1864]  Tour  in  Egypt  69 

sensation  which  falls  upon  me  from  the  awful 
SILENCE  of  these  huge  gods  and  kings  whose 
mute  significance  was  once  so  much  more  definite 

than    that   of  any  picture   or   sculpture Never 

before  did   I   appreciate  Shelley's  epithet 

*  He  lingered  poring  on  Memorials 
Of  the  world's  youth,  through  the  long  burning  day — 
Gazed  on  those  SPEECHLESS  shapes '" 

On  their  return  down  the  Nile  they  were  com- 
pensated for  not  being  able  to  sail  by  the  as  yet 
unproved  pleasure  of  temple-seeing.  The  first 
temple  they  saw  was  Ombus,  the  place  of  crocodile- 
worship,  where  a  grand  portico  remains  close  to  the 
river.  He  writes  to  his  mother  in  February  :  *'  This 
temple  was  sacred  jointly  to  two  deities,  and  so  the 
entablature  above  the  great  columns  of  the  portico 
exhibits  two  winged  globes.  When  one  has  seen 
these  sweeping  pinions  widespread  over  the  sublime 
entrance  of  an  Egyptian  temple — and  they  are  found 
there  always — one  perceives  that  Isaiah  seized  a 
most  striking  feature  ifi  their  religious  symbolism 
when  he  describes  Egypt  as  'a  land  shadowing 
with  wings.' " 

The  tour  was  unfortunately  cut  short  for  him  by 
illness  :  on  their  return  to  Cairo  he  was  laid  up  with 
a  mild  attack  of  gastric  fever,  followed  by  jaundice. 
It  was  the  greatest  disappointment  to  him  not  to 
see  Palestine,  but  his  doctor  discouraged  the  attempt 
so  strongly,  that,  as  soon  as  he  was  well  enough, 
he  started  for  home  in  the  *' Syria"  on  March  30th, 


70  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1864 

taking  the  long  voyage  to  Southampton  instead  of 
stopping  at  Marseilles,  as  he  did  not  feel  equal 
to  the  railway  journey  through  France. 

After  a  month  of  the  quiet  life  and  health-giving 
air  of  Killiney  the  jaundice  left  him,  and  gradually 
he  regained  his  usual  health  and  spirits. 

To  HIS  Sister. 

"  Desmond, 

August  13//^,  1864. 
My  dearest  Tye, 

I  am  afraid  I  have  not  much  to  say.  I 
defy  the  author  of  the  '  Polite  Letter  Writer '  to  find 
anything  to  say  about  any  given  fortnight  at  Killiney. 
As  you  well  know,  we  took  a  drive  yesterday  after- 
noon, and,  as  you  have  long  anticipated,  Bobby  and 
Mama  take  another  to-day.  A  letter  came  for  you 
from  Olivia  Finlay  to-day,  which  Mama  opened,  as 
she  thought  it  might  be  a  proposal  for  me,  or  some 
such  matter  of  business.  I  read  it  over  her  shoulder, 
and  can  assure  you  that  you  are  welcome  to  the 
whole  of  the  contents.  We  called  at  Stoneville  the 
other  day.  Mrs  Pratt  said  that  I  looked  more  like 
a  cavalry  officer  than  a  fellow  of  Oxford ;  and  the 
Colonel  wanted  to  know  if  ancient  Egyptian  was  still 
much  spoken  on  the  Nile.  Then  we  went  on  to 
TalbotSj'Joneses,  and  Colombs,  of  whom  the  last  only 
were  at  home. 

You  will  get  this  on  your  birthday.  May  they 
go  on  accumulating,  long,  long  after  you  have  begun 
to  think   accuracy  unnecessary  in   counting  them! 


1864]  Letters  71 

When,  many  years  hence,  you  and  I  are  keeping 
house  together,  I  shall,  ever  on  this  day,  present 
you  with  some  elegant  trifle,  inscribed  with  the  exact 
date  of  your  birth." 

His  sister  had  asked  him  to  arrange  a  course  of 
reading  for  her.  He  answers  in  the  character  of  an 
elderly  uncle,  feeling  amused  that  anyone  should 
consider  him  an  authority. 

To  HIS  Sister. 

'■^  Septe7nber^   1864. 

My  dear  Child, 

Nothing  gives  me  more  pleasure  than  to 
be  able  to  afford  the  benefit  of  such  experience  as  I 
have  had  to  those  whose  youth  renders  education  a 
matter  of  paramount  importance.  You  are  kind 
enough,  in  your  last  letter,  to  express  a  belief  that 
I  have  the  power  to  render  you  such  help  ;  and 
pursuant  to  your  wish,  I  write  a  few  remarks  which 
seem  suited  to  the  extended  scale  on  which  you 
purpose  to  pursue  your  studies. 

In  the  first  place,  you  cannot  do  better  than  make 
reading  the  basis  of  your  whole  course  of  study. 
But  you  must  seek  those  works  which  are  calculated 
to  expand  and  elevate  the  thoughts,  not  to  depress 
the  intellectual  faculties  and  cause  you  to  degenerate 
into  a  mere  reader  of  fiction.  Not  that  I  would 
discourage  novel-reading  as  a  whole,  but  I  would 
cautiously  advise  you  to  read  no  work  of  fiction 
unless  the  name  of  the  author  guarantees  its  literary 
and  moral  excellence.      For  example,  the  works  of 


72  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1864 

Scott,  Dickens,  or  Thackeray,  and  the  later  works 
of  Bulwer,  although  varying  In  the  principles  they 
inculcate,  never  lead  us  to  refine  upon  human  de- 
ficiencies, or  to  mistake  sentimentalism  for  feeling.... 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  C.  Jebb. 

P.S.  Will  you  tell  me  the  name  of  the  pianoforte 
tuner  at  Kingstown  ;  or  do  you  refuse  ?  Send  a 
single  line,  if  you  like,  saying  '  I  decline  for  certain 
reasons  to  communicate  the  name  of  this  tuner,'  and 
I  will  respect  your  reserve  without  questioning  your 
motives.     But  do  not,  do  not  prolong  this  suspense." 

"Cambridge, 

Friday,  October  31^/. 

'*  I  had  a  walk  with  Sidgwick  to-day,  which  I 
enjoyed  very  much.  He  is  one  of  the  most  agree- 
able companions  I  know  here.  Mr  Wood  gave  me 
my  music  lesson  as  usual,  and  for  the  first  time  I  got 
kudos  for  the  sonata  of  Beethoven's." 

All  through  the  diary  the  weather  never  fails  to 
be  recorded,  the  beauty  of  the  trees,  the  clouds,  the 
colouring  of  the  seasons,  almost  every  sunbeam 
noted. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"Trinity  College, 

December  6th,   1864. 

I  have  just  come  in  from  a  solitary  walk.  I 
am  not  sure  that  I  do  not  sometimes  prefer  my  own 


1864]  Letters  73 

company  to  any  that  I  can  get — as  far  as  walking  is 
concerned  at  least.  There  is  something  that  I  enjoy 
very  much  in  the  frosty  twilight  of  a  December 
afternoon.  To-day  everything  was  still  and  clear, 
and  the  sunlight,  with  the  afternoon  shadows,  was 

beautiful I    suppose   that   susceptibility  to   the 

quieter  beauties  of  nature  is  sometimes  the  com- 
pensation for  suppressed  ardour  and  ambition  in 
vivid  temperaments.  I  do  not,  somehow,  associate 
the  kind  of  feeling  that  these  things  give  me  now 
with  my  childhood,  though  a  striking  landscape 
always  impressed  me  intensely.  Perhaps  half  the 
charm  of  these  calm  winter  scenes  is  their  nameless 
*  regret ' — the  '  divine  despair '  that  touches  nearly 
all  impressible  people  now  and  then,  but  which  has 
no  place  in  the  mind  of  a  child.  I  never  ex- 
perienced this  vague  sensation  half  so  strongly  as  in 
the  Egyptian  sunsets.  Do  you  know,  under  the 
strange  spell  that  they  threw  over  me,  I  more  than 
once  caught  a  glimpse  of  some  incident  in  my  early 
childhood,  that  had  left  no  former  vestige  in  my 
memory  ?  When  I  said  that  I  do  not  associate  the 
sensation  itself  with  my  earliest  recollections,  I  did 
not  mean  that  the  sensation  does  not  often  help  me 
to  recall  old  times.  It  is  of  later  growth  itself;  but 
it  is  often  the  window  through  which  I  catch  glimpses 
of  bygone  years.  I  can  tell  you  that  I  have  begun 
fairly  to  indulge  in  thinking  about  Christmas.  I 
shall  continue  to  get  up  at  seven  o'clock,  as  it  agrees 
with  me  so  well.  Then  I  shall  have  an  hour's 
reading ;  and  as  I  suppose  we  shall  both  breakfast 


fy  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1864 

about  nine,  I  shall  be  ready  to  come  and  read  to 
you  afterwards  till  you  begin  to  think  of  getting  up, 
and  order  me  to  ring  your  bell.  Then  I  shall  do 
some  reading ;  and  when  you  come  downstairs  we 
will  sit  in  the  garden  together 

Next  Tuesday!  It  is  not  far  off  now.  The 
notches  on  the  Cambridge  stick  and  Winchester 
stick  are  nearly  done,  and  in  three  days  more  the 
Winchester  and  Cambridge  stick  will  respectively 
be  cut\ 

Butler  has  come  up  for  one  day  only.  I  was 
lucky  to  get  nearly  two  hours  of  him.  It  is  wonder- 
ful how  his  freshness  and  vigour  have  survived  the 
ageing  ordeal  of  a  Headmaster's  routine.  His  work 
is  very  hard,  and  much  of  it  very  dull,  but  his 
capacity  of  taking  vivid  interest  in  new  books,  new 
questions,  and  old  friends  is  unimpaired." 

^  His  brother  Heneage  was  at  school  at  Winchester. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DIARY  AND   LETTERS.      PUBLIC   ORATORSHIP. 
1865— 1870. 

The  next  few  years  are  marked  by  no  events  of 
an  exceptional  nature.  Term  succeeded  term,  and 
vacation  vacation  ;  time  slipped  by  in  University 
life  quickly  and  almost  without  notice.  The  "  Diary" 
letters,  now  addressed  to  his  mother,  are  records  of 
lectures  given,  books  read,  reviews  written  for  the 
''  Saturday,"  to  which  he  has  become  a  weekly  con- 
tributor. He  likes,  indeed  loves,  some  of  his  pupils, 
who  quickly  become  his  friends,  and  does  his  best  to 
make  them  work  ;  and  he  never  seems  to  have  a 
single  meal  alone.  The  old  ''Tea  Club"  of  his 
undergraduate  days,  which  was  instituted  by  a  group 
who  disliked  four  o'clock  hall,  had  ended  naturally 
when  most  of  its  members  went  down,  but  other 
clubs  sprang  up  in  its  place.  Next  to  the  meetings 
of  the  "  Society,"  he  found  dining  with  the  ''  Con- 
vivialists"  (Rothschild,  Flower,  Kenyon)  as  their 
guest  at  their  weekly  dinner  parties  most  enjoy- 
able. They  seem  to  have  gathered  about  them 
almost  everyone  of  interest  in  the  University.  It 
was  a  very  brilliant  group   in  Trinity  at  that  time 


76  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1865 

that  made  the  inner  circle  of  J  ebb's  friends.  Even 
their  amusements  were  an  intellectual  exercise  : 
acrostics  were  the  fashion  of  the  moment,  and  the 
late  Mr  F.  W.  H.  Myers  is  my  authority  for  saying 
that  ''none  were  ever  written  Jebb  could  not  solve." 
March  20,  1865,  he  writes  in  the  '*  Diary"  :  '*  I 
am  brimming  over  with  triumph  at  this  moment. 
The  Right  Honourable  Robert  Lowe  gave  Roths- 
child an  acrostic  for  me  as  hard  as  he  could  make 
it ;  I  have  guessed  it  two  hours  after  it  came  to 
Cambridge.  I  wonder  how  quickly  he  will  guess 
the  following  of  my  composition.  See  if  you  can. 
Mr  Lowe  is  said  to  be  wonderful  at  acrostics. 

Tarn  O'Shanter  when  hunted  by  imps  in  a  pack 
Had  my  second  in  front,  and  my  first  on  his  back ; 
Now,  if  the  O'Shanter  had  been  but  my  whole, 
He  would,  I  presume,  have  shewn  fight  for  his  soul. 

L 
I  never  state  unqualified  opinions; 
Why  am  I  vexed  by  Satire  and  her  minions  ? 

I'm  a  young  lady  mentioned  by  the  Childe ; 
But  my  prestige  is  singularly  mild  : 
Gulnare,  Medora,  make  profound  sensations — 
Pin  chiefly  known  as  having  expectations. 

HI. 

When  meetings  gush,  I  thank  their  evening  gun, 
I'm  still  the  sour  minority  of  one. 

It  is  a  word  of  two  syllables,  '  my  First  and  my 
Second.'"     (The  answer  is  j^^;^/^;;^.) 


1865]  Diary  and  Letters  yy 

Many  pen  portraits  are  given  in  the  ''  Diary"  in 
order  that  the  home  people  may  follow  the  record 
more  intelligently. 

March  21st.  "I  had  two  or  three  people  at 
breakfast  to-day  :  the  Greek  Professor,  Mr  Thomp- 
son\  Sidgwick,  Pollock,  and  Mr  Aldis  Wright.  The 
Greek  Professor  is  no  ordinary  person.  As  a  young 
man  he  was  wonderfully  handsome,  wonderfully 
witty,  in  short  a  demigod  of  whom  all  things  were 
expected.  He  retains  in  his  ashes  the  power  of 
saying  better  things  than  anybody  in  Cambridge, 
and  more  of  them,  but  always  in  a  caustic  vein  now  ; 
of  his  good  looks  age  and  indigestion  have  left  just 
enough  to  help  one  to  the  belief  that  he  must  have 
been  a  splendid  looking  young  man  ;  of  the  brilliant 
auguries  of  his  old  friends,  alas,  little  has  come  : 
ill-health  has  prevented  him  from  doing  anything 
substantial." 

Among  Jebb's  pupils  and  associates  were  men 
of  every  variety  of  early  experience.  It  interested 
him  to  see  how  the  surface,  at  any  rate,  was 
smoothed  and  polished  for  those  who  from  the  first 
had  had  what  are  called  social  advantages. 

March  29M.  '*  The  more  I  see  of  young  men  of 
different  ages  and  sets,  the  more  I  am  struck  with 
the  omnipotence  of  good  society  in  educating  a  boy, 
who  is  not  positively  unamiable  to  begin  with.  The 
cleverest  man  I  know  talks  incomparably  worse  than 
Z.,  who,  though  a  clever  man,  is  a  mere   child  in 

^  Afterwards  Master  of  Trinity. 


78  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1865 

age,  mind,  and  ideas,  compared  with  him.  X.  Y.  is 
another  instance  of  the  same  thing.  He  is  not 
clever  ;  but  he  is  one  of  the  most  charming  men  I 
know.  I  think  the  secret  is  this.  Nothing  but  con- 
stant intercourse  with  one's  fellow-creatures  suffices 
to  keep  before  the  mind  a  vivid  perception  of  what 
may  or  may  not  hurt  another's  feelings.  A  man  who 
has  not  much  practice,  and  who  lives  by  himself  a 
good  deal,  has  a  very  inaccurate  idea  of  what  it  is 
polite  to  say.... From  sheer  bluntness  of  perception 
he  uses  a  turn  of  expression  or  a  phrase  which 
wounds  your  little  amour  propre  ;  after  which  you 
listen  to  him  under  a  wet  blanket  and  are  bored." 

With  himself  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
others  was  an  instinct.  The  Headmaster  of  Charter- 
house^ in  a  letter  to  me  emphasises  this  trait : — 

"  I  well  remember  the  unobtrusive  censure  with  which, 
almost  upon  the  sly,  Jebb  set  his  mark  against  the  false 
quantity  or  solecism,  while  at  the  other  end  of  the  verse  he 
discussed  some  delicacy  of  taste  or  of  scholarship.  In  those 
blithe  careless  days  we  rather  smiled  at  the  scruples  of 
courtesy,  which  seemed  needless  as  they  certainly  were 
unaccustomed;  but  things  change  complexion... and  it  is 
best  of  all  now  to  remember  the  Teacher,  to  whom  the  con- 
viction of  a  boyish  blunder  seemed  almost  like  trenching 
on  a  discourtesy.  In  the  world  of  scholarship  he  taught  us 
all  good  manners,  and  Attic  seemliness  became  in  him  a 
sort  of  inner  spiritual  force,  that  neither  uttered  nor  ad- 
mitted *  one  rude  word.' " 

April   \st.      "  This    has   been    such    a    lovely 
day — real  spring  at  last.      Hervey  and  I  had  a  de- 
lightful long  walk,  which  I  enjoyed  more  than  any 
1  The  Rev.  Dr  Rendell. 


1865]  Diary  and  Letters  79 

walk  this  term.  He  is  one  of  the  very  pleasantest  of 
companions,  and  we  have  always  a  good  deal  to  say, 
and  almost  always  one  good  argument  at  least. 
Some  people  prefer  the  society  of  those  with  whom 
they  disagree  on  some  subjects,  inasmuch  as  differ- 
ence of  opinion  promotes  conversation  ;  for  my  part 
I  prefer  people,  even  to  talk  to,  whose  views  are  the 
same  as  my  own.  John  Hervey  and  I  think  alike 
on  nearly  all  subjects,  and  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever 
enjoyed  conversations  with  persons  of  my  own  sex  so 
much  as  some  that  I  have  had  with  him." 

April  ^th.  "  The  work  of  the  term  is  over 
at  last.  It  has  been  a  very  long  one,  but  pleasant 
beyond  my  expectations  ;  indeed,  if  it  has  had  a 
fault  at  all,  it  is  that  there  has  been  too  much  society 
for  a  sober  old  bachelor  and  young  don  like  myself. 
By  Thursday  everyone  will  have  gone  down,  and 
there  will  be  nothing  to  interfere  with  solitary 
students.  After  so  long  a  spell  of  rather  uninterest- 
ing work,  relieved  by  constant  dinner  parties  and 
rubbers  of  whist,  it  will  be  rather  satisfactory  to  have 
a  short  interval  of  solitude  for  mental  refreshment. 

Dr  Whewell  has  just  lost  his  wife  after  a  very 
short  illness.  It  is  sad  for  the  poor  old  man,  who 
was  settling  down  for  such  a  happy  old  age,  and 
beginning  to  rest  on  the  honours  which  must  hence- 
forth be  unshared.  They  say  she  was  his  first  love. 
If  so,  it  is  a  curious  instance  of  a  disappointed  man 
achieving  greatness,  and  eventually  sharing  it  with 
the  first  object  of  his  affections.  " 


8o  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1866 

November  21st.  "I  dined  with  Sidgwick  last 
night  ;  such  a  distinguished  party — two  Professors, 
two  Senior  Wranglers,  three  Senior  Classics,  and 
the  Senior  and  Junior  Dean.  Professor  Fawcett,  the 
blind  M.P.,  asked  me  to  take  him  for  a  walk  to- 
morrow.     I   am  very  glad  to  know   him  better." 

February  ijtk,  1866.  ''John  Hervey  came  back 
and  we  had  a  long  and  delightful  chat.  He  is  a 
friend  in  a  thousand,  and  I  don't  think  there  could 
be  a  better  proof  of  it  than  that  at  the  end  of  five 
years  I  like  him  better  than  ever. 

Ulick  Bourke^  is  now  certain  of  rowing  in  the 
boat  race,  and  his  place  in  the  Eight  will  be  No.  3. 
The  precarious  position  of  the  crew  presumptive, 
before  the  boat  is  definitely  made  up,  is  well  illus- 
trated by  a  fact  he  mentioned  this  morning.  One 
day,  at  the  training  breakfast,  it  was  noticed  with  dis- 
may by  everyone  that  there  were  nine  in  the  room  : 
no  one  could  tell  that  the  newcomer  was  not  to  sup- 
plant him  ! 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Examiners  for  the  Craven 
this  afternoon,  we  knocked  off  all  the  seventy-two 
candidates  except  four,  among  whom  the  competition 
now  lies.  The  election  will  take  place  on  March  9th. 
In  the  meantime  each  Examiner  will  have  to  mark 
forty  papers  with  great  care.  It  seems  to  me  that 
in  rewarding  her  Examiners  merely  with  honour 
our  august  Mother  does  not  make  such  a  bad 
bargain." 

^  A  cousin. 


i866]  Diary  and  Letters  8i 

February  22nd.  ''At  two  o'clock  attended  at 
the  Senate  House  to  vote  in  favour  of  the  pro- 
posed American  Lectureship.  My  friend,  H.  Y. 
Thompson,  had  made  an  offer  to  the  University 
of  endowing  a  chair  for  a  Lecturer  to  be  sent  over 
biennially  from  Harvard  University,  U.S.A.,  with 
the  object  of  making  us  better  acquainted  with 
American  affairs  in  general.  A  narrow  and  bigoted 
party  in  the  University  succeeded,  unfortunately,  in 
raising  the  cry  that  Harvard  is  a  seat  of  Socinianism, 
and  by  mixing  up  the  religious  question  with  the 
matter  contrived  to  intimidate  a  number  of  men. 
The  proposal  was  rejected,  though  only  by  105  votes 
to  75-" 

February  26th.  "  Myers  is  a  man  for  whom  I  am 
beginning  to  have  admiration.  He  has  great  self- 
command  and  earnestness  of  purpose.  Having  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  life  he  has  been  leading 
is  not  the  thing,  he  has  devoted  himself  to  self- 
discipline,  such  as  he  believes  suited  to  his  own  tem- 
perament. He  never  goes  anywhere.  He  gets  up 
at  6.30  and  goes  to  bed  at  ten.  His  days  are  spent 
in  reading  Fcce  Homo,  and  thinking.  All  this  may 
seem  morbid,  and  many  people  would  laugh  at  it,  but 
for  my  part  I  respect  and  congratulate  a  man  who 
can  do  it.  It  shows  that  he  has  a  strong  interest 
and  that  he  is  in  earnest.  The  thing  that  puzzles 
me  in  life  is  how  people  who  have  enough  energy 
left  to  be  in  earnest  about  anything  can  be  unhappy. 
And  yet  I  do  not  think  Myers  is  happy.     For  my 

J.  M.  6 


82  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1866 

own  part,  I  am  never  unhappy  when  I  feel  capable 
of  an  effort :  unhappiness  and  prostration  are  with 
me  synonymous." 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"Trinity  College, 

March  10th,  1866. 

All  is  at  last  over  ;  our  poor  Master  died  about 
two  hours  ago,  very  peacefully  ;  and  a  great  still- 
ness has  settled  down  upon  the  College,  where  all 
are  thinking  of  the  great  man  who  has  just  passed 
away  from  us,  in  the  fulness  of  age  and  honours,  and 
within  the  walls  where  all  his  work  was  done  and  all 
his  long  life  spent.  It  is  a  pleasant  thought  to 
me  that  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  are  my  only 
associations  with  the  memory  of  one  whom  many 
thought  arrogant,  but  whom  those  who  knew  him 
most  and  best,  credited  with  a  large  and  warm  heart. 
It  seems  such  a  short  time  since  the  stately  old  man, 
too  proud  to  struggle  with  his  grief,  followed  his  wife 
to  her  grave,  and  went  back  to  his  lonely  house ;  and 
I  am  sure  that  if  last  April  he  could  have  known  that 
the  separation  was  but  for  a  few  months,  the  sorrow 
that  awed  all  who  witnessed  it  would  have  been  less 
bitter. 

Flower  has  been  sitting  with  me  :  he  brought  the 
news.  Percy  Hudson  came  in  soon  afterwards.  Great 
changes  will  soon  come  in  the  College  ;  and  in  a 
body  like  ours,  anxieties  for  the  future  necessarily 
tread  very  closely  on  such  an  event  as  to-day's. 
Expectation  begins  to  point  to  Thompson,  the  Greek 


1 866]  Diary  and  Letters  83 

Professor  ;  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  Vaughan^  is  a 
far  more  likely  man.  It  is  no  light  matter  to  us 
Fellows  who  is  to  reign  over  us,  with  so  much  power 
for  good  or  evil,  during  the  best  years  of  our  lives." 

March   i6tk.     ''  ...The    funeral  of   the    Master 

took  place  this  morning There   could    not   have 

been  less  than  seven  hundred  persons  present.  The 
grave  was  opened  in  the  floor  of  the  ante-chapel,  and 
a  platform  for  the  choristers  was  raised  on  one  side 
of  it.  This  part  of  the  service  was  peculiarly  touch- 
ing, the  familiar  place  being  so  closely  associated 
in  the  minds  of  all  Trinity  men  with  him  who  was 
being  laid  in  it. 

I  walked  with  Butler — a  long  walk — and  dined  in 
hall.  The  Master-Presumptive,  Professor  Thomp- 
son, came  over  and  sat  by  me.  I  could  not  help 
thinking  as  he  sat  there  what  an  admirable  successor 
he  would  make  to  the  great  man  whom  we  have  lost. 
Thompson  is  even  now  a  strikingly  handsome  man 
— tall,  dignified,  and  with  the  air  noble  as  emphatic- 
ally as  almost  anyone  I  have  ever  seen." 

March  \%th.  '' Lightfoot  preached  a  funeral 
sermon  on  the  late  Master  this  morning,  and  the 
chapel  was  crowded  to  hear  it.  He  took  for  his  text 
I  Corinthians  xv.  32,  and  dwelt  on  the  special 
stimulus  to  effort  which,  in  a  society  like  ours,  is 
supplied  by  a  long  line  of  intellectual  ancestry.  One 
more  great   name,  he  added,  had  passed  from  the 

^  Dr  Vaughan   is   said   to   have   declined   an   offer    of   the 
Mastership. 

6—2 


84  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1866 

ranks  of  the  combatants  to  the  ranks  of  the  spec- 
tators (alluding  to  the  metaphor  of  his  text,  taken 
from  the  combats  of  the  amphitheatre)  ;  and 
then  he  reviewed  Whewell's  position  as  a  literary 
man,  passing  on  to  his  personal  relations  with  our- 
selves, touching  very  happily  on  an  incident  of 
exactly  a  year  ago,  when,  on  this  fifth  Sunday  in 
Lent,  the  Master  attended  the  service  in  the  College 
Chapel  almost  immediately  after  his  wife's  death, 
and  did  not  shrink  '  to  commit  to  our  sympathies 
the  saddest  of  all  sights — an  old  man's  bereave- 
ment and  a  strong  man's  tears.' " 

April  '^rd.  "  Missed  my  walk  to-day,  having 
promised  to  do  a  good  office  for  Gray  by  coming 
to  Chapel  at  three  o'clock,  and  being  present  as 
the  necessary  witness  when  he  expounded  the 
catechism,  according  to  an  old  College  custom  by 
which  that  duty  devolves  on  the  Junior  Dean  at 
this  season.  So  we  went  together  to  the  great 
empty  place,  and  he  mounted  the  Dean's  desk  and 
held  forth  while  I  played  congregation." 

To  HIS  Mother. 

''April  i^th,  1866. 

You   ask    me    to  give   you   my  opinion  of 

Ecce  Homo.  Well,  to  begin  with,  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  man  is  not  a  Unitarian.  Two  or  three  times 
the  doubt  crossed  me  in  the  earlier  chapters  ;  but,  as 
the  plan  of  the  book  was  developed,  I  was  struck 
rather  by  the  calmness  and  confidence,  not  very 
usual    in  the  essayists  of  the  day,  with  which  the 


1 866]  Diary  and  Letters  85 

writer  assumed  orthodoxy.  And  in  point  of  fact  it 
is  precisely  this  assumption  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
I  mean,  of  course,  this  absence  of  allusion  to  the  fact 
as  one  to  be  discussed,  which  avowed  disbelievers 
like  Huxley  have  in  view  when  they  call  Ecce  Homo 
a  feeble  book.  The  very  division  of  the  subject 
which  the  writer  has  adopted  seems  to  me  to  an- 
nounce his  emphatic  rejection  of  Unitarianism.  If 
the  writer  intimates  that  in  Ecce  Homo  he  has  con- 
sidered only  one  side  of  the  subject  ;  if,  in  order  to 
render  the  survey  complete,  a  companion  work  is 
promised,  what  else  can  be  its  theme  but  '  Ecce 
Deus '  ? 

As  to  the  value  of  the  book  as  an  aid  to  practical 
religion,  it  appears  to  me  to  consist :  (i)  In  its  vivid 
illustration  of  this  position  :  how  do  men  become, 
for  the  most  part,  pure,  generous,  and  humane  ?  By 
personal,  not  by  logical  influences.  (Chapter  on  the 
nature  of  Christ's  Society,  I  think.)  (2)  In  the  stress 
laid  on  imitation  of  Christ  as  a  result  of  enthusiastic 
personal  attachment  to  him.  But  this  is  a  very  bald 
account  of  the  matter  ;  nor,  indeed,  have  I  more  than 
skimmed  the  book." 

Some  years  after  this,  when  Professor  Seeley 
was  staying  with  us  at  Glasgow,  J  ebb  ventured  to 
ask  him  if  he  intended  to  bring  out  another  study 
of  Christ.  The  answer,  most  unexpected,  was  to 
the  effect  that  he  had  fulfilled  this  intention  already. 
On  being  pressed  for  an  explanation,  he  said  that  he 
meant  his  Life  of  Stein  !  His  questioner's  comment 
on  this,  in  telling  it  to  the  present  Headmaster  of 


86  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1866 

Eton,  was  that  if  he  had  heard  this  statement 
attributed  to  Seeley,  he  would  have  scouted  it  as 
incredible. 

Part  of  the  long  vacation  was  spent  with  Lord 
John  Hervey  in  a  short  tour  along  the  banks  of  the 
Loire.  They  had  meant  to  include  Brittany  in  the 
trip,  but  after  seeing  Blois  and  Amboise  and  the 
country  in  the  neighbourhood,  they  were  stopped 
short  at  Tours  by  Lord  John's  becoming  ill.  The 
attack,  though  sharp,  yielded  easily  to  rest  and 
treatment,  but  great  weakness  followed,  and  the 
French  physician  ordained  that  for  "■  ten  days  at 
the  less "  they  must  stay  where  they  were.  The 
letters  show  their  spirits  unaffected  by  this  break 
in  their  plans. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"  H6tel  de  l'Univers, 
Tours, 

September  Afth^  1866. 

...We  are  going  on  very  satisfactorily  here,  and 
I  feel  myself  settling  down  into  a  provincial  French- 
man, and  speculating  as  to  when  I  shall  next  take  a 
run  up  to  Paris  to  see  the  last  new  farce  at  the 
Palais  Royal,  and  get  a  new  hat.  Hervey  and  I 
play  picquet  after  dinner,  which  we  always  have  at 
7.15.  We  have  got  a  very  diminutive  pack  of 
apricot-coloured  cards,  with  rounded  corners  and 
gilt  edges,  and  printed  names  in  the  corner  of  the 
court  cards.  The  king  of  diamonds  is  David,  and 
the  queen  of  spades,  Sarah.... 


1 866]  Diary  and  Letters  87 

We  have  another  unfaiHng  source  of  amusement 
in  the  garpon.  He  is  a  boy  of  about  nineteen,  I 
should  think,  with  very  bright  twinkling  eyes,  a  low 
forehead  with  the  hair  all  down  on  one  side,  and  a 
most  mischievous  expression.  Every  now  and  then 
it  befalls  him  to  be  seized  with  perfect  spasms  of 
laughter,  perhaps  in  the  middle  of  dinner,  and  he 
has  to  retire,  on  some  shallow  pretence,  in  a  convul- 
sive state.  One  hears  some  choking  inarticulate 
sounds  as  he  leaves  the  room,  and  by  and  by  an 
explosion  in  the  distance.  The  uncertainty  of  these 
attacks  makes  them  rather  exciting.  It  is  a  curious 
coincidence,  however,  that  they  seem  liable  to  follow 
remarks  addressed  to  him  in  French  by  me-,  but  this 
is  merely  a  singular  symptom  of  his  case,  and  throws 
no  light,  of  course,  upon  the  causes  at  work.  His 
last  serious  attack  came  on  at  dinner  yesterday. 
He  had  put  some  unripe  peaches  on  the  table,  and 
Hervey  remarked  that  they  were  dures  comme  poires, 
when  I  added  et  vertes  comme  haricots  (in  playful 
allusion  to  the  haricots  verts  which  appear  regularly 
in  the  carte  du  jour).  The  effect  upon  poor  J  acques 
was  instantaneous  and  appalling :  he  fled,  purple 
and  suffocating,  and  we  felt  relieved  for  his  life  when 
a  loud  report  behind  the  door  announced  that  the 
paroxysm  was  past.  Hervey,  who  is  pardonably 
proud  of  his  skill  in  the  language  of  the  country, 
was  at  first  a  little  discomposed  by  this  suppressed 
derision,  and  talked  seriously  of  the  necessity  of 
remonstrating  with  Jacques.  By  degrees,  however, 
it  became  clear  that  this   mysterious  influence  on 


88  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1866 

the  youth's  disorder  resided  only  in  one  of  us ;  and 
now  Hervey  thinks  him  a  very  honest,  amusing 
fellow.  As  to  my  feelings  towards  the  boy,  this  is 
neither  the  time  nor  the  place  to  speak  of  them. 

I  find  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  call  the  cathedral 
here  St  Martins  ;  it  is  St  Gatiens,  The  famous  old 
cathedral  of  St  Martin  was  destroyed  at  the  Revo- 
lution, after  twelve  centuries  of  renown,  and  nothing 
remains  of  it  but  a  pair  of  insignificant  towers  in  an 
obscure  street.  Wherever  one  goes  in  France,  one 
has  reason  to  deplore  the  senseless  and  irreparable 
havoc  committed  in  the  name  of  civil  liberty.  At 
Orleans,  for  example,  the  democrats  melted  down, 
to  make  cannon,  a  statue  of  Jeanne  d'Arc  erected 
only  a  few  years  after  her  death,  about  1435,  it  is 
said.  At  Blois,  they  whitewashed  all  the  fine  old 
rooms  in  the  Castle  ;  but  that  folly  has  fortunately 
been  cancelled  by  the  new  decorations,  and,  indeed, 
was  nothing  worse  than  vandalism.  It  was  some- 
thing worse  than  vandalism  to  destroy  such  a  grand 
old  pile  as  St  Martin's  Cathedral.  When  one  con- 
siders the  incalculable  treasures  of  art  throughout 
France  which  the  Revolution  swept  away,  one  sees 
that  it  was  one  of  the  most  tremendous  blows 
ever  dealt  at  the  continuity  of  human  records.  It 
quite  deserves  to  rank,  in  this  point  of  view, 
with  the  burning  of  the  Alexandrian  Library  by 
Omar.  It  destroyed  a  mass  of  memorials  which 
nothing  can  replace,  and  left  gaps  and  blanks  for 
the  antiquarians  and  historians  of  all  ages  to 
regret." 


1 866]  Diary  and  Letters  89 

October  21st,  '*  I  heard  to-day  of  a  most  romantic 
act  of  generous  friendship,  the  more  striking  to 
me  as  I  actually  know  the  parties.  A  Trinity 
man  was  engaged  to  be  married,  but  neither  he 
nor  the  lady  had  any  money,  and  a  long  engage- 
ment was  before  them.  When  lo,  a  College  friend 
of  the  Lothario's — an  undergraduate  at  Magdalene 
with  ;^6ooo  a  year — comes  forward  and  presents 
him  with  ^10,000;  on  the  strength  of  this  the 
young  couple  have  been  married. 

November  ist,  1866,  will  be  illustrious  in  the 
history  of  Trinity  as  the  first  day  on  which  a  late 
dinner  took  place  in  the  College  hall.  There  is 
actually  to  be  a  'feast'  at  seven  o'clock!  One  of  the 
very  old  dons,  who  had  dined  at  four  all  his  life,  was 
so  much  disgusted  that  he  said  in  hall  yesterday,  let 
them  pay  him  his  dividends  in  advance  and  he  would 
resign  his  fellowship !  *  The  framework  of  society 
must  be  going  to  pieces.'  '* 

November  iitk.  ''  Went  for  a  walk  with  Pollock 
to-day  and  we  talked  about  Ritualism,  one  of  the 
great  topics  here  at  present.  It  is  creditable  to 
the  common-sense  of  our  men  that  nothing  corre- 
sponding to  the  caricature  of  Ritualism  at  Oxford 
has  been  attempted  in  Cambridge." 

Jebb  went  to  Dresden  in  the  Christmas  vacation 
with  a  view  to  improving  both  his  German  and 
music.  Mr  Cobb,  a  Fellow  of  Trinity,  a  man  of 
high  musical  attainments,  was  his  companion,   and 


90  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1866 

together  they  estabHshed  themselves  in  a  very  well 
known  pension,  that  of  Fraulein  Kretschner.  The 
house  was  so  full  that  at  first  the  friends  shared  one 
room  ;  also,  they  had  to  dine  with  the  children  at  a 
side-table  in  a  room  behind  the  dining-room.  ''  By 
and  by  we  shall  be  promoted,  and  truly  glad  I  shall 
be.  Our  side-table  is  presided  over  by  a  most 
amiable  and  excellent  Fraulein  Somebody,  a  great 
friend  of  Fraulein  Kretschner  s,  who  helps  her  to  do 
the  honours  ;  and  this  good  lady  hammers  away  at 
me  with  her  German  till  I  am  nearly  wild  and  all 
thoughts  of  food  have  become  odious  to  me.  '  Sehr 
gut '  and  *  sehr  schon  '  and  '  ja '  and  *  so  '  will  hardly 
get  the  most  skilful  and  economical  listener  through 
dinner  comfortably  ;  and  when  I  attempt  to  con- 
struct a  remark  on  the  strength  of  knowing  some 
one  word,  it  is  not  always  as  intelligible  as  it  de- 
serves. However,  Herr  Schier  (if  indeed  that  is  his 
name)  and  I  begin  our  studies  at  eight  to-morrow 
morning,  and  I  shall  take  care  that  they  are  of  a 
practical  character  for  the  first  few  days  ;  else  I  shall 
die  of  atrophy  or  of  indigestion.  No  convict  left  for 
execution  ever  heard  the  bell  of  Newgate  begin  to 
toll  with  more  despair  than  I  hear  the  sounds  that 
knell  forth  breakfast  or  dinner^" 

Lessons  in  German  and  music  were  taken  daily, 
and  very  soon  he  became  at  ease  in  the  language. 
Two  Oxford  men,  *'  Ridley,  a  Fellow  of  All  Souls, 
and  Cookson,"  were  staying  in  the  same  house,  and 
the  three  went  together  on  Christmas  Eve  to  hear 
^  Letter  to  his  mother,  December  20,  1866. 


1 866]  Diary  and  Letters  91 

the  midnight  Mass  at  the  Katholische  Kirche,  where 
the  music  was  magnificent.  Mr  Cobb  and  he 
escaped  on  Christmas  Day  from  the  children  and 
the  back-room,  as  the  Americans  who  had  hitherto 
barred  the  way  both  at  bed  and  board,  had  left. 
''  Cobb  and  I  will  have  separate  rooms  now,"  writes 
J  ebb  in  the  diary. 

He  enjoyed  his  stay  in  Dresden  extremely.  The 
wonderful  music  was  a  daily  delight,  and  soon  other 
entertainments  appear.  On  December  27th  there  is 
a  dance,  and  Messrs  Ridley  and  Cookson  and  he 
hold  a  consultation  on  the  programme  of  dances. 
They  go  to  the  opera  on  the  off-nights  when  there 
is  no  concert.  Weber's  opera,  "  Oberon,"  made  a 
deep  impression.  **  The  scenery  was  beautiful ;  the 
overture  magnificent,"  he  writes  to  his  mother  on 
December  29th.  *'  It  is  a  most  exquisite  pleasure  to 
hear  good  music  executed  faultlessly.  Every  man  in 
the  band  is  an  artist  of  the  very  first  order ;  not  a 
few  are  celebrities.  No  wonder  there  is  no  such 
orchestra  in  Europe.  But  though  the  music  was 
glorious,  I  had  an  equal  treat  in  the  acting  of  a  lady 
who  had  only  a  very  small  part,  that  of  wife  to  the 
Emir  who  bullied  the  lovers  and  wanted  to  marry 
the  princess.  This  part  was  played  by  Fraulein 
Ulrich  ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  she 
is  the  greatest  genius,  male  or  female,  that  it  has 
been  my  fortune  to  see  on  the  stage  :  not  great 
praise,  as  it  happens,  and  I  would  make  it  greater  if 
I  could.  When  I  add  that  she  is  decidedly  very 
pretty,  you  will  justly  conclude  that  as  soon  as  Herr 


92  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1867 

Schier  and  I  have  conjugated  willen  and  sollen,  I 
shall  ask  her  to  accompany  me  to  an  island  where 
young  women  are  never  married  to  Turks — to  my 
free,  my  romantic  England." 

The  party  of  Englishmen  was  increased  by  the 
arrival  of  Mr  Storr  and  Mr  Shepard,  friends  he  had 
counted  on  meeting  when  the  plan  was  made  to 
come  abroad.  They  returned  to  England  at  the 
end  of  January  in  time  for  Jebb  to  take  up  his  usual 
College  and  University  work  at  Cambridge. 

Early  in  1867  his  first  book,  a  school  edition  of 
the  Electra  of  Sophocles,  was  published.  ''  The 
plan  of  the  series  to  which  it  belongs,"  he  writes 
to  his  father,  ''excludes  the  thought  of  anything 
ambitious,  and  of  course  there  is  no  dclat  to  be 
gained  by  an  edition  of  this  sort.  But  at  the 
same  time  one  improves  one's  own  scholarship  and 
has  the  satisfaction  of  hoping  that  the  work  may  be 
of  practical  service.  I  am  revolving  more  than  one 
project  for  a  book  in  a  rather  higher  sense  ;  and 
I  am  resolved  that  as  soon  as  possible  I  shall  settle 
down  to  some  serious  literary  labour.... The  longer 
one  lives  here,  the  more  clear  it  becomes  that  some 
strong  intellectual  interest  is  absolutely  necessary  in 
order  to  prevent  the  drifting  into  monastic  sloth  and 
becoming  tired  of  the  cloistral  life." 

This  book  deserves  something  more  than  this 
rather  slighting  mention  by  the  author.  Mr  J.  D. 
Duff,  Fellow  of  Trinity,  writes  : — 

"  Jebb's  editions  of  the  Ajax  and  Electra  of  Sophocles 
appeared  in  a  series  of  commentaries  published  by  Messrs 


1867]  Diary  and  Letters  93 

Rivington  and  called  Catena  Classicorum.  Jebb's  two 
volumes  were  a  revelation  to  the  boys  whose  good  fortune 
it  was  to  read  them,  and  were  only  superseded  by  his  own 
larger  editions  of  the  same  plays.  They  were  quite  unlike 
any  of  the  commentaries  we  had  been  in  the  habit  of  using; 
and  I  think  the  most  striking  difference  was  that  Jebb  paid 
respect  to  our  own  language  and  was  not  content  to  trans- 
late noble  Greek  into  barbarous  English.  Other  guides  of 
our  youth  were  less  scrupulous.  One  distinguished  scholar 
translated  some  words  from  a  famous  chorus  of  Aeschylus 
in  this  way  :  *  there  is  present  for  me  to  feel  the  severe,  the 
very  severe  chill  of  a  hostile  public  executioner.'  Another 
editor,  of  great  and  deserved  distinction,  offered  this 
English  as  an  equivalent  for  a  pathetic  sentence  in  one 
of  Demosthenes'  greatest  speeches :  *  this  woman  in  the 
first  instance  merely  quietly  to  drink  and  eat  dessert  they 
tried  to  force,  I  should  suppose.'  One  feels  that  Jebb 
would  rather  have  cut  his  hand  off  than  written  either  sen- 
tence ;  and  if  the  standard  of  translation  is  higher  now,  part 
at  least  of  the  credit  must  be  assigned  to  him.  Boys  who 
used  his  books  soon  began  to  feel  that  Greek  and  English 
were  both  noble  languages,  and  that  the  true  scholar  must 
learn  to  use  both  aright." 

To  HIS  Father. 

^^  February  gth^  1867. 

My  Dearest  Father, 

We  had  a  very  pleasant  party  at  the 
Lodge  last  night.  To  begin  with,  the  Poet  Laureate, 
Woolner,  the  sculptor,  the  Public  Orator,  Cope, 
Munro,  Sidgwick,  and  L  It  was  really  a  party  that 
one  might  feel  proud  of  having  been  asked  to ;  at 
least  I   might,  and  did,  very.      Tennyson  is  exactly 


94  'S'^'r  Richard  J  ebb  [1867 

like  his  photographs — I  mean  quite  as  shaggy.  His 
long  black  hair  is  very  thin  now  ;  he  is  bald  on  the 
crown  ;  and  it  falls  as  from  a  tonsure  about  his  ears. 
He  looks  older  than  I  should  have  expected  ;  his 
accent  is  decidedly  Lincolnshire,  and  this  was  one  of 
the  things  that  rather  surprised  me.  It  is  impossible 
not  to  like  him,  and  not  to  understand  that  he  is 
a  man  of  genius.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  one 
would  have  found  it  out  from  his  talk  to-night  if  one 
did  not  know  it  before ;  only,  that  given  the  fact  of 
his  genius,  his  personality  makes  it  more  intelligible; 
you  see  its  workings.  Tennyson  had  a  tremendous 
argument  with  Munro  about  a  Latin  passage.  It 
was  great  fun  to  see  them." 

February  \^th,  1867.  *' Another  wet  day.  I 
began  after  dinner  to  read  the  Life  of  St  Theresa, 
which  Myers  had  lent  me.  It  is  striking,  but  de- 
formed by  instances  of  excessive  weakness  and 
credulity  :  a  highly  nervous  person  in  a  morbid 
state  of  mind  is  scarcely  pleasant  to  read  about. 
Still  there  is  a  great  deal  that  is  noble  ;  and  at  any 
rate  the  physical  sufferings  that  she  had  to  endure 
were  not  imaginary. 

Myers  urges  me  to  leave  Cambridge  and  take 
orders  and  duty  in  some  very  laborious  parish. 
He  has  a  theory  that  Cambridge  depraves  me, 
and  that  I  shall  never  be  good  for  anything  until 
I  take  some  such  step.  He  is  distinctly  a  man  of 
genius,  not  merely  talented ;  but  I  am  puzzled 
when  I  try  to  anticipate  what  career  he  is  likely 
to  choose." 


1867]  Diary  and  Letters  95 

March  ytk,  1867.  "This  has  been  rather  a 
severe  day's  work  for  me,  but  it  is  over  at  last,  or 
nearly  so.  I  took  a  lecture  for  Myers  this  morning, 
and  an  extra  hour's  teaching  is  rather  apt  to  be  the 
last  straw  on  the  back  of  that  patient  dromedary,  a 
tripos  examiner.  Cornish  of  Eton  is  up,  and  is 
coming  to  tea  with  me  to-night.  He  is  a  charming 
man,  and  I  am  so  glad  to  hear  from  all  sides  that  his 
wife  is  so  nice.... I  begin  to  find  that  I  miss  Lady 
Francis  Osborne  terribly;  it  makes  a  great  difference 
not  having  a  friend  to  whom  one  may  talk  as  I  could 
to  her.  I  think  I  never  enjoyed  a  friendship  more. 
She  is  very  charming  and  really  beautiful,  but  it 
is  her  gift  of  sympathy  that  makes  her  adorable  \" 

In  August  he  joined  a  party  (Mr  G.  O.  Trevelyan, 
Lord  John  Hervey,  and  Mr  Arthur  Humphreys)  in 
Wales  at  Festiniog,  a  small  village  perched  on  the 
top  of  a  hill,  where  they  were  completely  secluded 
from  the  outer  world.  ''The  Penygwern  Arms  is  very 
well  situated,  looking  on  to  Moellyn  and  the  moun- 
tains on  that  side  of  the  vale.  Nothing  could  be 
more  comfortable  than  our  rooms.... In  short  we 
have  a  house  to  ourselves  for  all  purposes.  I  have 
seen  enough  of  the  place  already  to  feel  sure  that  the 
choice  made  is  a  good  one.  Trevelyan  is  working 
away  in  his  room  ;  Hervey  is  reading  up  India, 
where  he  is  going  in  September;  and  I  have  the 
sitting-room  to  myself,  not  having  yet  settled  down 

^  Lord  Francis  Osborne  and  his  family  had  been  living  in 
Cambridge  for  two  years,  and  had  recently  moved  into  the 
country. 


96  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1868 

in  my  bed-room,  which  lacks  a  chest  of  drawers  and 
a  table,  and  so  I  have  given  myself  a  holiday  this 
morning.  Trevelyan's  book  is  to  be  about  Aristo- 
phanes and  old  Greek  life',  and  I  think  ought  to  be 
very  good.  This  afternoon  we  are  going  for  a  long 
walk  in  the  Beddgelert  direction." 

In  1868  a  Classical  Tripos  Syndicate  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  reforms  which  a  large  party  in 
the  University  thought  imperatively  called  for.  J  ebb, 
though  not  a  member  of  the  Syndicate,  was  keenly 
interested  in  the  question,  and  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  help  the  side  he  had  taken  up  after  long 
deliberation.  He  wrote  a  paper  embodying  his  views 
on  the  changes  necessary,  and  was  very  happy  to 
find  that  two  of  his  three  points  were  finally  adopted 
by  the  Syndicate  ;  but  it  had  been  a  long  and 
obstinate  battle  with  ultra-conservatism,  and  the 
victory  of  the  reformers  was  by  no  means  complete. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"Oxford  and  Cambridge  Club, 
April  2ndy  1869. 

I  have  just  been  reading  the  accounts  of  the 
Diocesan  Conferences  in  Ireland.  What  strikes  me 
most  is  the  unpractical  view  of  the  situation  which 
seems  to  have  been  taken  everywhere  except  in 
Meath.  The  talk  was  generally  of  '  no  surrender,'  as 
if  it  was  a  question  of  surrender  when  the  Commons 

^  The  pieces  here  mentioned  were  published  in  The  Interludes 
under  the  titles  of  "The  Ladies  in  Parliament"  and  "An  Ancient 
Greek  War." 


1869]  Diary  and  Letters  97 

have  decided  on  disestablishment.  What  do  they 
expect?  That  the  House  of  Lords  will  reverse 
the  decision  of  a  majority  of  118  in  the  Lower 
House  ?  It  can  no  more  do  that  than  I  can.  I  am 
really  puzzled  to  understand  how  large  meetings,  of 
the  educated  classes  too,  can  be  so  childish.  What- 
ever the  merits  of  the  question  may  be,  it  is  now 
settled.  The  thing  to  do  is  to  make  as  good  terms 
as  possible." 

On  the  2nd  of  October  it  became  known  that 
Mr  W.  G.  Clark,  the  Public  Orator  of  the  University, 
had  resigned  his  office.  Dr  Lightfoot  at  once  pro- 
posed to  J  ebb  that  he  should  stand.  As  usual,  he 
himself  thought  he  had  very  little  chance,  believing 
that  Mr  Holmes,  of  St  John's,  another  candidate 
who  had  once  acted  for  a  few  months  as  Mr  Clark's 
deputy,  would  from  this  fact  possess  a  great  advan- 
tage in  the  election.  Other  friends,  however,  thought 
J  ebb's  chances  good  ;  and  as  soon  as  it  was  known 
that  Mr  Burn,  one  of  the  Trinity  tutors,  would  not 
come  forward,  he  called  upon  the  Master,  got  his 
approval  of  the  candidature,  and  at  once,  on  Octo- 
ber 2 1  St,  issued  the  printed  circular  announcing  that 
he  was  standing  for  the  vacant  office.  In  the  be- 
ginning three  candidates  were  in  the  field,  Mr  Day 
of  Caius,  Mr  Holmes  of  St  John's,  R.  C.  Jebb.  The 
electing  body  is  the  Senate,  that  is,  the  whole  num- 
ber of  M.A.'s  whose  names  are  on  the  Register  of 
the  University.  Of  these  there  are  many  thousands; 
and  every  member  of  this  large  constituency  who 
could  be  got  at  had  to  be  canvassed,  and  persuaded 

J.  M.  7 


98  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1869 

if  possible  to  come  to  Cambridge  on  the  day  of 
election  and  vote.  This  meant  stirring  times  for 
the  candidates.  Mr  Day  soon  saw  that  he  had  no 
chance  and  withdrew  his  name.  This  made  it 
certain  that  the  other  two  candidates  would  now 
go  to  the  poll. 


To  HIS  Mother. 

"Oxford  and  Cambridge  Club, 
November  -^^rd^  1869. 

I  did  not  write  to  you  while  I  was  standing  for 
the  Public  Oratorship  because  the  result  was  doubt- 
ful to  the  very  last,  and  I  did  not  want  you  to  be 
disappointed.  The  overwhelming  majority  by  which 
I  was  elected  was  a  triumph,  not  for  me,  but  for 
Trinity.  If  I  had  been  of  any  other  College  I 
should  not  have  had  a  chance  against  Holmes.  But 
the  whole  of  the  powerful  Trinity  influence  was  set 
in  work  for  me  ;  men  came  up  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  not  caring  a  straw  whether  Jones  or  Smith 
was  Public  Orator,  but  determined  to  vote  for  the 
College  ticket ;  and  from  London  we  got  down  a 
special  train  with  about  200  Cambridge  barristers 
and  clergymen.... 

The  Public  Orator  is  the  spokesman  of  the  Senate 
on  public  occasions.  He  has  the  privilege  of  retain- 
ing his  fellowship  and  all  emoluments  upon  marriage, 
and  receives  a  stipend  of  ^100  or  ^150  a  year. 
The  position  is  a  high  one  at  the  University,  and  of 
course  very  advantageous  for  a  young  man." 


1870]  Diary  and  Letters  99 

The  new  Public  Orator  made  his  ddbut  in  the 
Senate  House  on  the  nth  of  November,  scarcely- 
more  than  a  week  after  the  election,  when  he 
presented  the  Bishop  of  Bathurst  for  an  honorary- 
degree.  This  appointment  to  University  office 
made  a  great  change  in  his  prospects  by  giving 
him  the  option  of  settling  at  Cambridge  in  a  good 
position,  and  life  became  simpler  now  that  his  line 
of  work  was  decided. 

At  the  end  of  term  he  and  Dr  Lightfoot  had 
intended  to  go  to  Rome  to  see  the  opening  of  the 
Oecumenical  Council,  but  J  ebb  had  lost  too  much 
time  over  the  election  to  be  able  to  spare  it  from 
work  in  the  vacation.  "  I  do  not  much  regret  having 
missed  it "  ;  he  writes  on  the  8th  of  December,  the 
day  of  the  opening ;  "  having  never  seen  Rome  be- 
fore, I  should  not  have  cared  to  see  it  at  a  time 
of  so  much  bustle.  And  I  think  one  would  have 
felt  the  contrast  between  the  splendour  of  the 
ceremonial  and  the  really  small  significance  of  the 
question  at  issue.  It  cannot  greatly  matter  to  the 
history  of  the  world  whether  the  propositions  before 
the  Council  are  affirmed  or  negatived." 

To  HIS  Mother. 

^^ February  i$th^   1870. 

I  am  dining  to-night  at  King's  to  meet  the 
Greek  Archbishop.  I  rather  wish  that  his  Grace 
were  at  Hong  Kong,  for  the  trouble  of  learning 
how  to  pronounce  his  language  with  some  distant 

7—2 


lOO  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1870 

approach  to  correctness  is  very  great.  You  know 
it  has  been  settled  that  he  is  to  be  presented  in 
his  own  language ;  and  not  only  the  Archbishop 
but  three  of  the  members  of  his  suite  are  to  have 
degrees  ;  I  shall  have  to  discourse  in  modern  Greek 
about  all  these  gentlemen." 

''^February  i^jth^   1870. 

My  ordeal  is  over,  and  went  off  quite  as  well 
as  I  could  expect — but  it  was  an  ordeal.  The 
Doctors  and  officials  escorted  the  Archbishop  in 
procession  from  the  Art  Schools.  When  we  entered 
the  Senate  House,  it  was  densely  crowded,  to  see 
the  Eastern  Bishop  in  his  robes — and  a  very  grand 
figure  he  certainly  was.  But  my  heart  misgave  me 
when  I  saw  the  galleries  crammed  with  under- 
graduates, for  I  knew  very  well  that  the  first  word 
of  Greek  would  make  them  furious,  and  that  there 
would  be  an  uproar.  Sure  enough  they  made  a 
diabolical  noise  at  intervals  all  through  my  speech, 
which  lasted  about  eight  minutes.  It  was  not  easy 
to  remember  my  new  pronunciation  in  such  an 
uproar,  but  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  that 
the  Archbishop  had  understood  it  all." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  his  interest  in 
modern  Greek.  He  continued  the  study,  until  he 
could  speak  the  language.      Mr  Duff  writes  : — 

"Jebb  spoke  modern  Greek  with  ease  and  fluency.  I 
remember  being  taken  by  the  late  H.  A.  J.  Munro  to 
dine  at  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Club ;  I  was  then  an 
undergraduate,  and  I  believe  it  was  in  the  summer  of 
1880.      The  next  table  to  ours  in  the  strangers'  dining- 


1870]  Diary  and  Letters  10 1 

room  was  occupied  by  Jebb  and  a  friend.  They  talked 
continuously  in  a  language  which  even  Munro,  who  knew 
many  languages,  at  first  failed  to  recognise.  However, 
as  they  were  close  beside  us  and  not  talking  low,  Munro 
soon  pronounced  that  the  language  was  modern  Greek. 
I  was  struck,  as  I  still  remember,  by  the  rapidity  with 
which  Jebb  spoke  it.  The  evening  paper  showed  that  a 
deputation  of  friends  of  Greece  had  been  received  that 
day  at  Marlborough  House.  About  that  time  a  good 
many  protests  were  made  against  Disraeli's  treatment 
of  the  aspirations  of  Greece  at  the  time  of  the  last 
European  settlement ;  and  some  may  still  remember  the 
verses  which  appeared  in  Punch : 

The  claims  of  Greece,  the  claims  of  Greece ! 
Which  Dilke  declared  and  Rosebery  rung, 
But  Dizzy  in  his  Berlin  peace 

To  the  Greek  Kalends  coolly  flung — 
Eternal  moonshine  gilds  them  yet. 
And  moonshine's  all  they'll  ever  get." 

May  \<^th,  1870.  "I  have  been  spending  the 
morning  in  a  somewhat  odd  employment — in  writing 
a  Latin  letter  to  my  old  friend  and  master,  Bradshaw, 
the  University  Librarian.  He  has  presented  the 
Library  with  a  magnificent  collection  of  Irish 
and  other  books,  and  I,  in  my  official  capacity, 
have  been  ordered  to  write  him  a  letter  of  thanks 
in  the  name  of  the  Senate.  This  production  has 
to  be  read  in  the  Senate  House  and  then  sealed 
with  the  University  Seal.  It  is  a  nice  pompous 
old  custom,  is  it   not?" 

May  20th,  "■  I  am  reading  Lothair  for  the 
second  time  in   order  to   relish  the   conversations, 


102  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1870 

which  are  admirable.  It  is  the  most  profoundly 
cynical  composition  I  ever  read — with  no  exception. 
I  do  not  like  it.  It  seems  to  me  essentially  ignoble  ; 
a  tribute  the  more  to  that  idolatry  of  rank  and 
money  so  baneful  to  society." 

November  \st,  1870.  ''Westcott  has  just  been 
elected  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  by  15  votes 
to  2.  Lightfoot  is  of  course  extremely  delighted, 
and  so  will  be,  I  think,  everyone  who  knows  what 
Westcott  is.  Both  in  learning  and  personality,  he 
will  be  a  great  acquisition  to  the  University." 

In  1870  J  ebb  brought  out  an  edition  of  the 
Characters  of  Theophrastus  with  illustrative  notes. 
"'  I  sent  off  Theophrastus  three  days  ago,"  he  writes 
to  a  friend.  *'  You  will  be  amused  I  think  by  the 
Eresian  if  you  have  not  expected  too  much  of  him. 
His  real  interest  is  this.  Other  writers,  whose 
name  is  legion,  prove  to  us  that  the  great,  the 
organic,  lines  of  human  nature  are  the  same  to-day, 
yesterday,  and  for  ever.  Theophrastus  is  one  of 
the  few  who  survive  to  remind  us  that  the  lighter 
traits  also  of  character  are  permanent  and  universal. 
The  bore  of  the  Fourth  Century  B.C.  is  essentially 
the  bore  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  a.d.  Do  not 
be  frightened  by  the  occasional  appearance  of  Greek 
type  in  the  notes  at  the  end.  The  notes  consist, 
mainly,  of  translated  extracts  from  old  authors. 
They  are  especially  meant  to  be  intelligible  to 
English  readers.  They  aim  at  illustrating  the  life 
of  Ancient  Hellas  (as  far  as  may  be)  in  contem- 
porary language." 


CHAPTER   VI. 

LETTERS   TO   C.    L.   S. 

1871 — 1872. 

In  the  spring  of  1871  R.  C.  Jebb  met  the  lady 
who  afterwards  became  his  wife.  She  was  at  the 
time  visiting  a  cousin  in  Cambridge,  and  on  her 
return  to  America  early  in  August  a  correspondence 
between  them  began  in  a  rather  unusual  way. 
He  sent  her  as  a  parting  present  a  book  of  photo- 
graphs of  all  the  places  of  interest  she  had  seen 
in  Cambridge,  and  accompanied  the  gift  with  some 
graceful  and  amusing  verses. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  correspondence 
that  gradually  became  regular  and  continued  until 
their  marriage  in  1874. 

To  C.  L.  S. 

^^  September  i6th^  187 1. 
Nothing  in  your  letter  interested  me  so  deeply 
as  your  account  of  the  meaning  which  you  attach 
to  religion.  Between  the  spirit  of  your  view  and 
the  spirit  of  mine  there  is  an  essential  analogy. 
It  is  this — that  for  me,  just  as  for  you,  religion 
almost  excludes  reasoning.  I  hold  my  Christianity 
very  much  as  you  hold  your  belief  in  God.     That 


1 04  Sir  Richa  rd  J  ebb  [  1 8  7 1 

is,  the  Christian  morality  and  the  Christian  hope 
appear  to  me  to  be  divinely  adapted  to  the  human 
heart ;  I  accept  them  therefore  as  a  divine  reve- 
lation, on  the  same  ground  that  supports  your  faith 
in  a  surrounding,  protecting,  disposing  Power.  But 
though  I  have  this  definite  and  constantly  evident 
reason  for  my  belief,  I  do  not  pretend  or  attempt 
to  analyse  those  details  of  Christianity  which  the 
theological  subtlety  of  centuries  has  formulated  into 
dogmas  of  which  the  very  language  is  unintelligible, 
without  research,  to  minds  of  the  present  day.  It 
is  clear  to  me  that  the  original,  the  authentic 
Christianity — the  Christianity  of  the  Apostles — was 
something  a  great  deal  simpler  and  plainer  than 
the  Christianity  of  any  modern  Church.... The  two 
grand  points  on  which  St  Paul  rested  his  Christianity 
were  these  only  :  the  fact  of  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ  and  His  personal  character." 


' '  September  2  2  nd^   1 8  7 1 . 

Since  I  wrote  that  reason  has  little  to  do 

with  my  faith,  there  have  come  into  my  mind  some 
words  of  a  man  whose  company  in  such  a  case  is 
the  more  reassuring  because  he  is  a  singularly  acute 
reasoner.  Newman  says  in  the  Apologia : — *  I  am 
far  from  denying  that  every  article  of  the  Christian 
Creed,  whether  as  held  by  Catholics  or  by  Pro- 
testants, is  beset  with  intellectual  difficulties  ;  and 
it  is  a  simple  fact  that,  for  myself,  I  cannot  answer 
those  difficulties But . . .  ten  thousand  difficulties 


1 871]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  105 

do  not  make  one  doubt,  as  I  understand  the  subject; 

difficulty  and  doubt  are  incommensurate Of  all 

points  of  faith  the  being  of  a  God  is,  to  my  own 
apprehension,  encompassed  with  most  difficulty,  and 
yet  borne  in  upon  our  minds  with  most  power.' 

Between  Newman's  position — if  I  understand  it 
accurately — and  my  own  there  is  a  certain  amount 
of  difference.  He  believes  in  the  being  of  God 
because  his  inner  consciousness  assures  him  that 
God  exists  ;  and  he  believes  in  Christianity,  with 
all  the  doctrines  attached  to  it  by  Catholicism, 
because  the  Church  tells  him  that  Christianity  is 
true.  I  believe  both  in  the  being  of  God  and  in 
Christianity — with  those  doctrines  attached  to  it 
which  I  understand  its  first  apostles  to  have  held 
— because  my  inner  consciousness  assures  me  that 
God  exists  and  that  Christianity  is  true.  He  relies 
partly  on  the  witness  of  the  inward  need  and  partly 
on  an  objective  authority  :  I  rely  throughout  on  the 
witness  of  the  inward  need.  But  this  is  a  difference  of 
detail.  With  him,  as  with  you,  I  agree  in  the  main 
principle  that  reason  is  not  the  arbiter  of  religion. 

Now  consider  the  last  sentence  which  I  quoted 
from  Newman,  and  with  which  I  agree.  To  me, 
as  to  him,  it  appears  that,  from  the  intellectual  point 
of  view,  no  doctrine  is  surrounded  with  so  much 
difficulty  as  the  Being  of  God.  What  you  already 
believe,  because  it  is  borne  in  upon  you,  is  the 
hardest  thing  of  all  to  believe.  What  I  believe — 
also  because  it  is  borne  in  upon  me — is,  after  the 
other,  a  comparatively  slight  trial  to  the  reason 


io6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [187 1 

I  never  talk  about  these  things  ;  and  I  have 
never  in  my  life  written  about  them  to  anyone  but 
you.  No  one  can  feel  more  than  I  do  how  unfitting 
it  would  be  for  me  to  preach  to  other  people 

Every  time  I  find  myself  in  the  midst  of  fine 
scenery,  the  thought  comes  back — Why  is  the  taste 
for  scenery  of  such  very  recent  development  ?  As 
has  been  so  often  pointed  out,  the  search  for  natural 
beauty  by  travellers,  and  the  effort  to  express  it  in 
language,  are  not  conspicuous,  though  they  are  of 
course  traceable,  before  the  beginning  of  this  century. 
And  if  the  ancient  world  is  contrasted  with  the 
modern  world,  one  broad  difference  is,  as  a  rule, 
discernible.  The  ancients  gave  no  place  in  their 
imaginations  to  what  Ruskin  calls  the  Pathetic 
Fallacy, — that  is,  to  the  conception  of  a  sympathy 
between  external  nature  and  the  passing  moods  of 
the  human  spirit.  In  the  old  world,  human  grief 
and  joy,  human  hope  and  despondency,  did  not 
fancy  any  mysterious  rapport  between  themselves 
and  Nature — did  not  go  to  her  for  comfort,  or 
hold  with  her  any  intimate  communion.  For 
instance.  Homer  or  Virgil  would  not  have  entered 
into  the  innermost  meaning  of  Wordsworth's  Ode 
on  Intimations  of  Immortality ;  where,  after  saying 
that,  for  him,  nothing  can  now  bring  back 

*  the  hour 
Of  splendour  in  the  grass,  of  glory  in  the  flower,' 

he  goes  on  to  affirm  his  faith  in  a  'primal  sym- 
pathy, which  having  been  must  ever  be  ' — and 
ends  triumphantly — 


1 871]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  107 

'And  O,  ye  fountains,  meadows,  hills  and  groves, 
Forebode  not  any  severing  of  our  loves ! 
Yet  in  my  heart  of  hearts  I  feel  your  might.' 

For  in  these,  from  childhood  to  old  age,  he  had 
found  an  unbroken  companionship,  varying  only 
in  mood.  I  have  often  thought  that  the  contrast 
between  this  tone  and  the  tone  of  the  old  world 
is  well  brought  out  in  a  beautiful  and  touching 
scene  of  the  Iliad.  Helen  is  standing  on  the  walls 
of  Troy,  looking  out  on  the  Greek  warriors  whose 
forms  rush  and  dart  through  the  battle  on  the 
plain  before  the  walls  ;  she  recognises  many  whom 
she  had  known,  many  who  had  wooed  her,  in  past 
years,  in  Greece ;  but  she  looks  in  vain  for  her 
own  twin  brothers,  the  glorious  Dioscuri.  She  does 
not  know  that,  since  she  left  home,  they  have  died. 

*  But  now  in  far  Laced  aemon 
Earth,  Earth,  giver  of  life,  had   taken  the  Kings  to  her 
arms,' 

So,  at  the  very  moment  when  she  entombs,  Earth 
is  still,  for  Homer,  only  the  *  giver  of  life' — only 
the  passive  mother  of  trees  and  plants.  She  offers 
her  cold  embrace  to  the  dead  ;  but  no  sense  of  the 
mournfulness  of  death,  no  shiver  of  sympathy  with 
human  loss,  for  an  instant  ruffles  the  sleekness  of 
her  apathy,  or  disturbs  her  at  her  steady  soulless 
task.  Man  dies  :  and  the  flowers  go  on  springing : 
that  is  all.  How  differently  would  Wordsworth 
have  managed!  How  carefully,  almost  reverentially, 
would  he  have  abstained  from  calling  Earth,  at  such 
a  time,  the  Giver  of  Life ! 


io8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [187 1 

It  Is  difficult  quite  to  account  for  this  deep 
difference  between  the  old  and  the  modern  feeling 
towards  nature.  Perhaps  two  main  causes  may  be 
traced.  First,  Christianity.  From  the  time  when 
It  prevailed  over  paganism  and  had  rest  from 
without,  Christianity  has  gone  on  developing  In 
the  mind  of  Christian  Europe  a  habit  of  pensive 
meditation,  more  or  less  devotional,  which  had 
nothing  corresponding  to  It  In  the  pagan  mind, 
and  to  which  the  repose  of  beautiful  scenery  Is 
congenial.  Next,  civilisation.  In  the  last  century, 
even,  a  journey  Into  the  Scotch  Highlands  (for 
Instance)  was  a  perilous  and  excessively  disagreeable 
enterprise  ;  and  people  cannot  go  Into  raptures  when 
they  are  wretchedly  uncomfortable.  Travelling  has 
now  become  safe,  easy,  and  cheap.  Then  wealth 
has  increased  ;  the  taste  for  the  fine  arts,  which 
depend  on  wealth  as  regards  the  area  over  which 
they  are  popular,  has  been  diffused  ;  and  this  taste 
reacts  on  the  taste  for  scenery.  Hundreds  of  people 
who  would  not  think  a  landscape  worth  looking  at 
on  Its  own  account  are  interested  in  It  because  It 
reminds  them  of  a  clever  water-colour  which  they 
have  at  home." 


"  October  2^fh,   187 1. 

Last  night  at  the  end  of  dinner  I  found  myself 
next  Professor  Seeley.  Our  talk,  going  from  one 
thing  to  another,  happened  to  turn  at  last  on  the 
curious  neglect  which  some  of  the  greatest  English 


iSyi]  Letters  to  C  L.  S.  109 

poets  experienced  from  their  contemporaries.  *  No 
country,'  said  Seeley,  '  has  three  such  wrongs  to 
answer  for  as  the  neglect  in  their  own  day  of 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  Wordsworth.'  I  sug- 
gested that  Milton's  case  was  of  a  kind  distinct 
from  the  other  two,  inasmuch  as  he  is  the  only 
one  of  the  three  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  was 
greatly  pained  by  the  neglect.  Wordsworth  was 
too  much  absorbed  in  external  nature,  and  in  the 
deepest,  most  permanent  things  of  human  nature, 
to  feel  greatly  the  indifference  of  a  generation, 
though  that  generation  was  his  own  ;  while,  as  for 
Shakespeare,  one  is  always  told  that  his  single 
ambition  was  to  be  able  to  go  back  and  settle  at 
Stratford.  The  very  wonder  of  his  genius  was  its 
almost  passive,  mirror-like  receptivity ;  other  men's 
natures  were  included  and  reflected  in  his ;  why 
should  a  creator  of  kings  and  cardinals  and  states- 
men hanker  after  worldly  greatness  ?  To  a  mind 
so  wide  and  calm,  pleasures  really  congenial  would 
not  have  seemed  less  desirable  because  they  were 
homely.  Seeley  had  a  theory  that  it  was  as  a 
disappointed,  world-wearied  man  that  Shakespeare 
retired  to  Stratford.  If  I  believed  that,  he  would 
be  to  me  the  most  unintelligible  of  all  human 
beings." 

'■^November  21st,   187 1. 

I  send  you  to-day  a  translation  from  Aeschylus, 
the  poet  of  inflexible  Destiny,  as  Sophocles  is  the 


no  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [  1 8  7 1 

poet  of  Reconciliation.  It  is  the  great  Chorus  of 
the  Furies — one  of  the  sublimest  of  all  his  tragedies. 
To  the  Greek  mind  the  Furies  represented  the 
stings  of  avenging  conscience.  The  Furies  are 
spirits  whom  the  curse  of  the  wronged  sets  upon 
the  track  of  the  wronger  :  they  haunt  him  :  they 
drive  him  at  last  to  some  act  by  which  his  victim 
is  avenged.  They  were  believed  to  watch  in  an 
especial  manner  over  the  ties  of  kindred  and  to 
punish  any  breach  of  them. 

The  party  at   the  Adams'  last  night  was   very 

pleasant I  sat  next  to  Mrs  Adams  which  was 

enough  in  itself  to  make  the  dinner  pleasant 

Professor  Adams  said  a  thing  which  seemed  to  me 
so  true,  and  which  was  deeply  impressive  as  coming 
from  an  eminent  man  of  science.  '  The  problems 
of  the  physical  world,'  he  said,  'seem  too  hard 
for  man's  mind  at  first :  yet  they  can  be  made 
out  by  trying ;  they  seem  out  of  reach  ;  but  they 
can  be  reached  by  standing  on  tiptoe.  Had  the 
system  of  the  universe  been  constructed  a  little 
differently,  the  ascertainment  of  its  laws  would 
have  been  beyond  us  ;  as  it  is,  we  seem  to  have 
been  given  simple  cases — examples  just  within  our 
comprehension,  of  laws  which  might  have  been 
too  complex  for  the  grasp  of  the  human  intellect." 


^''December  t^th,   1871. 

In    minor   politics,    civil    or    ecclesiastical, 

there  are  two  events  to  record : — first,  the  getting 


1 871]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  11 1 

up  of  a  Memorial  to  Mr  Gladstone  for  an  Execu- 
tive Commission  with  power  to  frame  new  Statutes 
for  the  University  in  place  of  the  mere  Commission 
of  Inquiry  into  Revenues,  etc.,  which  he  proposes. 

The  other  event   has  been  the  formation  here 

of  a  branch  of  the  Church  Defence  Institution. 
The  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  has  caused 
a  feeling  throughout  England  that  the  English 
Church  will  go  next,  and  will  go  soon.  Such  men 
as  Vaughan  and  Dr  Alford  were  saying  not  long 
ago  that  they  would  not  give  the  establishment 
ten  years  to  live.  This  I  believe  to  be  an  entire 
miscalculation.  There  is  a  vast  difference  between 
the  two  cases.  The  Church  of  Ireland  had  little 
or  no  social  influence.  The  Church  of  England 
has  enormous  social  influence.  Hardly  a  man  of 
any  position  in  England  but  has  a  brother,  or  a 
son,  or  a  cousin  in  orders ;  and  when  Mr  Miall 
moved  disestablishment  in  the  House  last  spring, 
the  result  of  these  personal  relations  was  expressed 
in  the  division.  I  totally  disbelieve,  then,  in  any 
immediate  danger  to  the  establishment ;  though  it 
seems  probable  that  the  tendency  of  the  day  to 
regard  religion  more  and  more  as  a  private  concern, 
to  be  settled  by  each  individual  for  himself,  will  lead 
to  a  universal  separation  of  Church  and  State  within, 
perhaps,  the  next  half-century.  When  I  was  asked 
to  join  the  Defence  Association,  I  consented  chiefly 
from  a  belief  that  the  establishment  is  a  protection 
for  religious  liberty  in  precisely  the  same  sense  that 
the    monarchy  is    a  protection  for  political    liberty. 


of  THE  \ 

(    UNIVERSITY  j 


112  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [187 1 

If  the  monarchy  were  abolished,  we  should  have 
the  tyranny  of  radicalism.  If  the  Church  were 
disestablished,  we  should  have  the  tyranny  of 
evangelicalism.  The  inaugural  meeting  of  the 
Institution  went  off  well.  The  Bishop  of  Ely, 
who  presided,  is  not  only  a  good  man,  but  a 
thoroughly  sensible  man  too ;  and  he  brought 
out  with  tact  as  well  as  with  truth  the  point  which 
in  England  it  is  still  so  hard  to  make  people  under- 
stand— that  religious  questions  are  not  political 
questions." 

"  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
December  22nd,   187 1. 

Cambridge  is  well-nigh  deserted  ;  its  thousands 
are  scattered  to  a  thousand  Christmas  hearths. 
The  October  Term  is  over.  From  fortnight  to  fort- 
night you  have  heard  something  of  its  growth,  from 
seed-time  to  harvest :  will  you  accept  now  the 
offering  of  the  last  gleanings  ? 

For  the  last  ten  days  everybody  here  has  been 
anxious  about  the  Prince  of  Wales.  When  I  wrote 
to  you  on  Monday,  Dec.  11,  it  seemed  impossible 
that  he  could  live  many  hours  :  symptoms  were  said 
to  have  appeared  which  must  necessarily  be  fatal. 
For  two  days  more  he  was  hanging  between  life 
and  death  ;  the  first  brighter  news  was  on  Thursday 
morning.  Everything  in  this  interval  depended  on 
his  getting  sleep ;  and  the  first  snatch  of  sleep 
was  the  beginning  of  hope.      Now  he  is   steadily 


1 871]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  113 

recovering — with  the  chance,  if  he  knows  how  to 
use  it,  of  becoming  the  most  popular  man  in 
England.  By  a  pardonable  confusion  of  ideas, 
people  are  prone  to  regard  the  recovery  of  a  well- 
known  person  from  a  critical  illness  as  an  achieve- 
ment— an  affair  which  proves  that  he  has  something 
in  him.  Death,  when  most  dreaded,  comes  to  be 
personified  ;  and  the  convalescent  appears  in  the 
light  of  a  victorious  athlete.  Altogether,  I  think 
that  Mr  Fawcett's  theory  is  likely  to  be  disproved 
by  the  result ;  the  prolongation  of  this  life  will 
have  prolonged  indefinitely  the  life  of  the  monarchy. 

The  Dante  readings  have  been  a  great  success. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Tovey^  and  I  form  the  class,  with 
Mrs  Potts  occasionally  as  audience.  Mrs  Tovey 
pronounces  Italian  so  remarkably  well  that  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  hear  her  read ;  and,  without  having 
studied  Italian  grammar,  she  seems  able  to  solve 
difficulties  by  intuition.  We  read  and  translate 
stanzas  in  turn ;  and  I  can  assure  you  that  we 
criticise  each  other  severely.  Dante  is  like  no  other 
poet ;  but  that  which  is  distinctive  of  him  may 
be  best  understood  by  comparison,  or  rather  con- 
trast, with  Milton.  Milton  in  Paradise  Lost,  as 
Dante  in  the  Divine  Comedy,  has  taken  for  his 
scene  a  supernatural  world.  But  Milton  is  ideal ; 
Dante  is  real.  Milton's  images  have  a  dim 
mysterious  grandeur ;  Dante's  images  have  an 
intense,  sometimes  an  almost  prosaic,  reality  :  he 
has  not  imagined  Heaven  and  Hell ;  he  has  been 
^  A  cousin  of  C.  L.  S. 

J.  M.  8 


1 1 4  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1871 

there.  He  speaks  like  a  traveller  reporting  what 
his  eyes  have  seen  and  his  ears  have  heard  and 
his  hands  have  handled.  For  instance,  Milton 
describes  the  colossal  form  of  Satan — *  floating 
many  a  rood' — huge  as  the  earthborn  enemies  of 
Jove.  Dante,  when  he  sees  the  gigantic  spectre 
of  Nimrod,  says — 'the  face  seemed  to  me  as  long 
and  as  broad  as  the  ball  of  St  Peter's  at  Rome '  ; 
and — though  the  form  was  but  half  seen — '  three 
tall  Germans  would  in  vain  have  attempted  to 
reach  to  his  hair.'  He  is  the  most  intense  and 
the  most  picturesque  of  all  poets  ;  too  intense  and 
too  picturesque,  even  when  he  is  threading  the 
paths  of  unearthly  regions,  to  be  mysterious.  Has 
he  not  seen — touched — spoken  with — the  angels 
and  the  daemons  ?  They  cannot  have  for  him  the 
misty  grandeur  of  Milton's  Titan  angels, 
*  Gabriel,  Abdiel, 
Starred  from  Jehovah's  gorgeous  armouries,' — 

nor  that  dark  majesty  in  which  Milton  has  shrouded 
the  eternal  rebellion  of  the  fallen  spirits.  Amid 
all  horrors,  Dante  is  ever  the  traveller ;  ever 
preserves  a  calm,  sober  power  of  accurate  obser- 
vation ;  hence  the  marvellous  impression  of  truth 
which  he  creates.  And  how  well  he  chose  his 
subject!  His  mind  was  by  nature  profoundly 
sorrowful :  in  every  line  that  he  wrote  appears  the 
asperity  of  pride  struggling  with  misery.  Beautiful 
things  are  beautiful  to  him  :  but  their  brightness 
becomes  a  certain  mournful  grandeur.  His  mind 
was,  in  the  words  of  Ezekiel,  '  a  land  of  darkness, 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  115 

as  darkness  itself, — and  where  the  light  was  as 
darkness.'  The  paths  of  his  outer  life  lay  through 
deep  shadows ;  and  he  chose  the  shades  as  the 
place  of  journeying  for  his  spirit. 

'  Follow  his  feet's  appointed  way ; — 

But  little  light  we  find  that  clears 

The  darkness  of  his  exiled  years. 
Follow  his  spirit's  journey; — nay, 

What  fires  are  blent,  what  winds  are  blown 

On  paths  his  feet  may  tread  alone  ? ' " 


''^January  29//^,   1872. 

When   you    come    in    this   letter   to    some 

opaque  masses  of  reflection,  do  not  at  once  pro- 
nounce them  '  dulness '  ;  be  euphemistic  and  call 
them  'shading.'  Verily,  you  shall  have  your 
reward.  The  next  fortnight  promises  to  be  a 
period  during  which  sound  learning  and  Religious 
Education — as  the  Calendar  somewhat  feebly  de- 
scribes the  presiding  influences  of  the  place — will 
be  stimulated  by  divers  worldly  pleasures,  before 
entering  on  the  meditative  twilight  of  Lent 

Do  you  know  I  have  been  trying  to  guess 
your  riddle — the  riddle  which  you  asked  me  out 
of  Realmak,  by  saying  that  it  has  set  you  thinking 
what  new  power  or  faculty  you  would  most  like 
to  have,  and  then  calmly  adding — 'but  I  think  I 
won't  tell  you  my  choice.'  Revenge  is  sweet ;  and 
I  beg  to  observe  that  I  am  tolerably  sure  I  have 
guessed  what  power  you  would  most  like  to  acquire, 

8—2 


Ii6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

and  that  I  have  not  the  slightest  intention  of  telling 

you Talking  of  Realmah — do  you  remember  a 

passage  in  Sir  Arthur's  conversation  with  Mauleverer 
— '  The  best  protest  I  ever  knew  made  against 
worldly  success  was  by  a  small  society  of  young 
men  at  College,'  etc.  (Chapter  XXIII).  In  my 
last  letter  I  told  you  how  I  met  Helps  at  the 
annual  dinner  of  a  Cambridge  Society.  It  is  this 
very  society  that  he  is  alluding  to  in  Realmah ; 
it  is  called  the  Apostles ;  and  his  description  of  its 
esoteric  tone  and  spirit  is  literally  true.  If  you 
know  In  Memoriam  you  may  perhaps  recollect 
the  place  (Stanza  LXXXVI)  where  Tennyson  de- 
scribes revisiting  Trinity  after  his  friend's  death, 
and  going  to  see  the  rooms  which  had  been  Arthur 
Hallam's.  It  is  this  same  Club  that  he  speaks  of 
there  :  his  name  and  Hallam's  stand  close  to  each 
other  on  its  books.  I  have  always  felt  that  nothing 
ever  did  me  more  good  than  belonging  to  this 
society — for  there  was  something  in  its  whole  spirit, 
and  in  the  peculiar  sort  of  intimacy  among  its 
members  which  helped  one,  just  at  the  critical  time 
of  life,  to  resist  common  standards,  to  aim  high 
and  to  be  independent. 

I  have  just  been  having  a  long  walk  with 

Fawcett,  and  on  our  way  back  we  were  met  by 
his  wife.      What  energy  that   little    lady  has ;    she 

is  in  the  best  sense  the  woman  of  the  future 

The  future  of  the  world  depends,  in  every  large 
question,  on  the  higher  education  of  women.  The 
commonplaces  repeated  in  society  of  a  certain  tone 


1872]  Letters  to  C,  L.  S.  117 

— by  the  men  with  complacent  contempt,  by  the 
women  with  devout  resignation,  as  if  to  believe 
them  were  a  part  of  religion — about  woman's 
'  sphere '  (which  seems  to  mean  vacancy)  sicken 
my  very  soul." 

^^  February  13M,   1872. 

Cambridge  has  been  very  gay  for  the  last 

fortnight — and  now  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  full 
and  particular  account  of  the  gaieties.  In  short, 
this  will  be,  distinctly  and  confessedly,  a  gossiping 
letter.  Do  not  Literature,  Science,  Art,  and  Politics 
remain  for  our  sustenance  during  the  austere  period 
of  Lent  ?  On  Ash  Wednesday,  and  for  thirty-nine 
days  afterwards,  I  shall  read  the  Times  and  the 
Contemporary  Review ;  and  on  February  27th,  pre- 
cisely, I  shall  write  you  one  of  the  most  instructive 
and  improving  letters  which  a  lady  could  possibly 
receive.  As  Horace  says,  however,  it  is  sweet  to 
be  foolish  in  season  ;    it   is  the  season  just  now ; 

and  so  you  shall  hear  all  about  our  little  world 

Following  a  Cambridge  example,  that  of  the  great 
Pepys,  I  shall  throw  the  fortnight  (or  rather  twelve 
days)  into  the  form  of  a  diary — a  form  which  has 
two  advantages  :  it  allows  of  unlimited  egotism  ; 
and  it  abolishes  the  need  of  connecting  remarks 

Friday,  February  2nd,  Commemoration  Day  at 
Trinity — transferred  from  December  15  th  on  account 
of  the  Prince's  illness.  Singular  subject  chosen  by 
the  preacher  for  the  day — the  importance  of  powers 


ii8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

of  speech — which,  with  a  pardonable  professional 
partiality,  he  appeared  to  regard  as  synonymous 
with  powers  of  preaching.  He  alluded  darkly  to 
a  historical  Master  of  Trinity  whose  laudable 
custom  it  was  to  write  out  his  sermons  four  times 
before  delivery.  (Wondered  how  the  present 
Master  liked  this  panegyric.) — Large  dinner-party 
in  hall.  Speeches.  A  good  speech  made  by  a 
countryman  of  yours,  Rives,  who  was  5th  Wrangler 
this  year ;  a  long  one  by  the  Astronomer  Royal ; 
and  a  lame  one  by  the  Master,  who  proposed  the 
Queen  without  saying  a  syllable  about  the  Prince 

Saturday,  February  i^rd.  Dined  with  the  Master 
of  St  John's,  Dr  Bateson.  Met  in  the  room  before 
dinner  a  man  whom  I  had  not  seen  for  ten  years, 
who  is  in  the  navy  now,  and  who  has  suddenly 
come  up  here  as  an  undergraduate.  Forbore  to 
remark  that  the  world  is  small.  Sat  between  Mrs 
Bateson  and  Mrs  Neville,  the  Master  of  Magdalene's 
wife.  Mrs  N.  is  a  very  pleasant  woman — fond  of 
society,  and  very  decidedly  averse  to  donnishness. 
We  had  a  most  amusing  talk — for  we  had  not 
met  for  some  time,  and  had  all  our  friends  and 
enemies,  to  say  nothing  of  the  affairs  of  Europe, 
to  discuss 

Sunday,  February  ^tk.  Dined  with  Mr  and 
Mrs  Potts.  Went  to  the  Historical  Society  at 
Mr  Fawcett's  at  9.  The  subject  for  discussion 
was  nominally  De  Tocqueville's  Democracy  in 
America,  Chapters  VI,   VH,   VHI:    but   it   came 


1872]  Letters  to  C,  L,  S.  119 

to  turn  mainly  on  the  comparative  advantages  of 
small  and  large  states :  this  was  too  abstract  for 
Fawcett ;  he  went  fast  asleep,  and  his  breathing 
formed  a  sort  of  trombone  accompaniment  to  the 
dialogue  between  Mr  Moulton  and  Mr  Marshall. 

Monday,  Feh^uary  ^tk.  Took  a  long  walk 
with  Dr  Lightfoot — a  man  whom  you  would  like 
if  you  knew  him.  He  is  curiously  shy,  but  in 
the  highest  and  best  sense  manly — physically, 
morally,  intellectually — and  is  a  rather  rare  instance 
in  England  of  a  man  having  refused  a  bishopric, 
not  because  he  was  indolent  or  because  his  wife 
told  him  to  do  so,  but  because  he  liked  study 
better.  He  is  one  of  the  few  genuine  students 
I  know,  and  in  theology  is  one  of  our  foremost 
men.  I  was  his  pupil — on  his  'side,'  as  we  say — 
at  Trinity,  and  we  have  been  close  friends  for 
years  now.  There  is  nothing  I  enjoy  more  than 
going  with  him  to  the  Cumberland  Lakes.  He 
knows  every  inch  of  the  Lake  Country  and  is  a 
good  instance  of  '  that  love  for  the  very  soil  and 
configuration  of  his  country  which  almost  always 
implies  high-heartedness ' — as  Palgrave  most  truly 
says  in  reference  to  Arthur  Clough.  Alone  with 
Lightfoot  there,  in  that  splendid  country,  talking, 
in  our  long  walks,  about  things  we  both  really 
care  for,  it  has  been  possible  sometimes  to  forget 
the  hard  side  of  life,  and  to  live  for  the  time  in 
better  things — in  a  region  above  the  frost-line  of 
perpetual  shams  and  misunderstandings. 


I20  Sir  Richa7'd  Jebb  [1872 

But  I  am  becoming  too  grave  for  the  Pepysian 
style.  Well,  in  the  evening  I  went  to  the  fort- 
nightly dinner  of  a  Society  to  which  I  belong — 
Ferrers,  Mr  Fawcett,  the  Master  of  Emmanuel, 
etc.,  etc.,  to  the  number  of  twelve,  being  the  other 
members.  We  met  this  time  at  Mr  H.'s.  I  found 
myself  placed  next  Mrs  H.  She  is  a  warm-hearted, 
simple-minded  Tory,  who  always  reminds  me  of 
Macaulay's  description  of  that  squirearchy  which 
formed  the  strength  of  Charles  Ts  army  in  the 
Civil  War.  For  example,  she  told  me,  without 
the  faintest  consciousness  of  platitude,  that  she 
thought  it  was  not  his  collars,  but  his  mind,  which 
constituted  a  gentleman.  I  began  to  hope  that 
there  was  something  wrong  with  my  collars,  as 
otherwise  the  remark  could  only  be  severe ;  when 
she  relieved  me  by  adding  that  she  thought  a 
real  lady  was  not  always  formed  at  a  girls'  school  ; 
and  then  I  perceived  that,  as  in  some  of  the  old 
Greek  writers,  one  clause  of  the  antithesis  had 
been  simply  ornamental — the  men  had  been  men- 
tioned only  to  bring  the  case  of  the  ladies  into 
clearer  relief. 

Saturday,  February  loth.  Dined  with  Dr  and 
Mrs  Parkinson  and  met  the  Master  of  St  Peter's 
and  Mrs  Cookson,  the  Frosts,  the  Liveings,  etc.  I 
had  occasion  to  admire  Dr  C.'s  talent,  or  rather 
genius,  for  looking  at  the  ceiling  when  embarrassing 
subjects  are  started.  It  is  the  gift  by  which  that 
man  has  succeeded  in  life.     Lord  Lytton  says  that 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  121 

a  man  with  manners  needs  only  opportunity  to  be 
great.  But  a  man  who  understands  surveying  the 
ceiling  as  Dr  C.  does,  is  better — he  must  be  great. 
Until  the  ceiling  falls,  nothing  can  embarrass  him  ; 
and,  after  it  fell,  he  would  be  found  looking  at  the 
sky — as  if  to  divert  attention  from  the  recent  crash — 
among  the  very  ruins 

Monday,  February  i2tk  (Yesterday).  A  Dante 
reading  in  Panton  Street^  at  2.  Mrs  Potts  and 
Mrs  Adams  came.  We  have  now  almost  finished 
the  Inferno, — by  May  we  shall  have  passed  through 
Purgatory  into  Paradise!  I  enjoy  Dante,  because  he 
is  the  great  instance  of  a  man  having  found,  in  a 
purely  ideal  world,  strength  to  grapple  with  real 
troubles  ;  he  was  too  proud,  and  too  strong  also,  to 
ask  or  find  in  imagination  a  mere  refuge  from  them  ; 
but  he  came  back  from  those  wanderings  in  the 
paths  of  Heaven  and  Hell  really  better  armed  for 
the  battle  of  his  life  ;  and  that  is  the  true  use  of 
poetry — the  use  which  Carlyle  does  not  understand, 
and  is  the  smaller  and  lower  for  not  understanding." 


•'  Cambridge, 

February  2'jth,   1872. 

Your  mention  of  Taine  s  Notes  on  England  has 
led  me  to  read  another  little  book  of  his,  published 
in  1864 — English  Positivism  ;  and  I  was  amused 
to   find    there  what  seems   to  me  to   be  a  partial 

^  At  Mr  Duncan  Tovey's  house. 


122  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

explanation  of  the  criticisms  which  you  heard  passed 
upon  him  at  Oxford.  Taine  begins  by  describing 
his  visit  to  an  Oxford  friend.  He  was  struck  with 
their  organisation  of  positive  science,  and  also  with 
the  absence  of  general  ideas.  *  You  have  savants,' 
he  said  to  his  host,  '  but  you  have  no  thinkers ' ;  and 
then  he  gives  his  theory  of  the  want.  The  authority 
of  orthodox  religion  takes  the  place,  he  thinks,  in 
England  of  a  desire  for  research  into  principles. 
'  Your  God  embarrasses  you '  (voire  Dieu  vous  gine), 
quoth  Taine  to  his  English  friend.  'He  is  the 
supreme  Cause;  through  respect  to  Him,  you  shrink 
from  reasoning  upon  causes.  He  is  the  most  im- 
portant Personage  in  England  ;  and  I  perceive  that 
He  deserves  to  be  so  ;  for  He  forms  part  of  the 
constitution  ;  He  is  the  guardian  of  morality  ;  He  is 
the  final  arbitrator  of  all  questions ;  He  replaces, 
with  advantage,  the  prefects  and  gendarmes  with 
which  the  peoples  of  the  Continent  are  still  en- 
cumbered. At  the  same  time,  this  high  rank  has 
the  inconvenience  attending  all  official  positions.  It 
produces  a  jargon,  prejudices,  and  intolerance.  See 
here,  quite  close  to  us,  poor  Mr  Max  Mtiller.  In 
order  to  acclimatise  Sanscrit  studies  here,  he  has 
been  forced  to  discover  in  the  Vedas  the  adoration 
of  a  moral  God — that  is  to  say,  the  religion  of  Paley 
and  of  Addison.' 

*  What  a  regular  Frenchman  you  are,'  retorts  the 
Oxford  man.  'You  glance  at  a  few  facts — and 
bound  to  a  generalisation.  Allow  me  to  tell  you  that 
we  have  thinkers — not  so  far  from  here,  either' 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L,  S,  123 

Then  follows  a  Socratic  dialogue,  In  which  Taine 
drives  his  friend  to  admitting  that  the  one  original 
thinker  of  England  is  John  Stuart  Mill ;  and  that 
Mill  is  original,  not  in  any  large  conception,  but  in 
method — by  a  better  organisation  of  the  philosophy 
of  experience.  '  Mill  moves  step  by  step,  somewhat 
slowly,  through  a  multitude  of  instances.  He  excels 
in  defining  an  idea— in  disengaging  a  principle — in 
recognising  it  under  a  host  of  different  aspects — in 
refuting,  distinguishing,  refining.' 

The  essay,  which  is  mainly  an  analysis  of  Mill's 
Logic,  ends  by  comparing  the  place  in  philosophical 
thought  of  Germany,  England,  and  France.  There 
are  two  main  bents  of  human  thought — the  practical 
and  the  speculative.  The  first  leads  to  the  con- 
sideration of  nature  as  an  assemblage  of  facts  :  the 
second — as  a  system  of  laws.  The  first,  employed 
alone,  is  English,  the  second,  German.  If  there  is 
a  place  between  them,  it  is  French.  '  We  French ' 
(says  M.  Taine)  '  have  enlarged  the  English  ideas 
of  the  eighteenth  century ;  perhaps,  in  the  nineteenth, 
we  shall  give  precision  to  the  ideas  of  Germany.'  Is 
not  the  tranquil,  ample  self-complacency  of  that  beau- 
tifully characteristic  of  the  Gallic  mind  ? 

Now  ;  imagine  what  all  this  would  be  to  the  true 
Oxonian  ;  to  whom  Oxford  is,  before  all  things,  a 
school  of  philosophy,  a  focus  of  original  speculative 
thought.  To  be  told  that  there  was  no  original 
thought  in  England  except  Mill's  positivism — and 
Mill  was  never  at  Oxford  !  '  Hence  these  tears ' : 
hence  'poor'  Taine. 


124  ^^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

When  you  have  read  his  Notes  on  England,  do 
tell  me  what  you  think  of  them,  and  we  will  compare 
our  Notes  on  Taine.  You  have  had  all  the  oppor- 
tunities of  judging.  French  views  of  foreign  society 
are  apt  to  be  fantastic.  A  Frenchman  is  quick  in 
observing,  and  often  proportionately  hasty  in  drawing 
large  conclusions.  Perhaps  De  Tocqueville  is  an 
exception.  I  have  the  third  New  York  edition  of 
his  Democracy  in  America — and  that  is  as  old  as 
1839 — which  looks  as  if  he  was  approved  in  the 
country  of  which  he  writes.  At  least  he  starts 
with  a  clear  apprehension  of  principles,  whether  his 
particular  applications  of  them  are  or  are  not  accurate. 

Have  I  ever  told  you  of  an  institution  called  the 
'  Ad  Eundem  '  Club  '^.  It  met  here  yesterday  ;  and 
I  shall  seize  the  opportunity  to  give  you  some 
account  of  a  society  so  peculiarly  constructed.  It 
consists  of  twenty-eight  members — fourteen  Oxford 
and  fourteen  Cambridge,  not  necessarily  resident,  but 
necessarily  at  least /^i-/  members  of  the  Universities. 
These  are  always  so  chosen  as  to  secure  a  political 
element.  In  the  present  twenty-eight  this  element 
is  represented  by  four  Members  of  Parliament,  and 
three  other  men  who,  though  not  in  the  House,  are 
more  or  less  connected  with  politics :  among  them 
Sir  Henry  Maine,  formerly  legal  member  of  Council 
at  Calcutta,  and  now  Professor  of  International  Law 
at  Oxford.  This  variety  of  elements  gives  a  special 
interest  to  our  meetings — which  take  place  at  Oxford, 
Cambridge  and  in  London  turn  about.  Yesterday, 
one  of  the  chief  topics  of  conversation  was  one  which 


1872]  Letters  to  C,  L,  S.  125 

is  sorely  perplexing  English  politicians  at  present ; — 
the  question  whether  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
ought  to  be  restrained  by  legislative  interference. 
One  party,  still  a  small  one,  is  for  restricting  the 
Liquor  Traffic  by  a  Permissive  Bill :  and  a  member 
of  our  club,  Mr  George  Trevelyan  (M.P.  for  the 
Border  Burghs)  is  one  of  the  leaders  of  this  party  ; 
Mr  Fawcett — also  of  our  society — maintains  on  the 
other  hand  that  a  Permissive  Bill  is  something  which 
would  almost  justify  armed  resistance  on  the  part  of 
the  people.  I  was  curious  to  hear  how  Trevelyan 
would  meet  Fawcett's  favourite  argument  against 
the  Bill, — viz.,  that  it  is  unjust  to  exclude  the  poor 
man  from  the  public-house  (perhaps  his  one  refuge 
from  miserable  lodgings),  while  the  rich  man  has 
his  comfortable  house  and  his  dinner-parties.  This 
inequality  may,  of  course,  be  illustrated  with  any 
amount  of  rhetoric,  and  is  the  grand  commonplace 
of  those  who  oppose  the  Bill.  Trevelyan's  answer 
was  that  the  demand  for  legislation  comes  from 
below,  not  from  above ;  and  that  the  poor  cannot, 
therefore,  be  treated  as  aggrieved  by  a  measure 
which  they  themselves  invoke.  This  argument  turns 
upon  a  question  of  fact,  which  few  people  can  be  in 
a  position  to  decide  at  present.  A  General  Election 
in  which  the  Permissive  Bill  was  made  a  shibboleth 
could  alone  test  effectually  the  popularity  which  the 
restrictive  system  is  said  to  enjoy  with  the  lower 
classes.  The  Maine  Law  is,  of  course,  a  contested 
precedent :  the  most  different  accounts  of  its  operation 
are  given.    For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  help  doubting 


126  Sii^  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

whether  anything  but  the  slow,  sure  remedy  of 
education  will  master  this  evil  in  England.  The 
individual  liberty  of  the  subject  is,  with  us,  dearly 
prized  and  darkly  understood  ;  a  legislative  measure 
which  could  be  represented,  with  any  plausibility,  as 
threatening  it,  would  have  no  chance. 

The  assassination  of  Lord  Mayo  has  startled,  as 
well  as  shocked,  this  country;  for  there  is  a  tendency, 
justified  less  by  the  special  facts  than  by  their  general 
antecedents,  to  connect  the  crime  with  the  recent 
activity  of  the  Mohammedan  fanatics  called  Wahha- 
bees. 

Is  it  not  singular  that  a  reinvigoration  of  Mo- 
hammedanism should  have  taken  place  at  nearly  the 
same  period  as  a  reinvigoration  of  Catholicism  '^.  It 
seems  as  if  the  human  mind  generally  (putting  ad- 
vanced thinkers  out  of  the  question)  had  not  yet 
found  any  conception  of  religion  more  satisfactory 
than  a  prophetism ; — than  the  belief  in  a  God 
interpreted  to  men  by  some  one  standing  in  a 
relation  more  or  less  close  to  that  God.  And  will 
mankind,  as  a  whole,  ever  prefer  a  different  creed  ? 
I  doubt  it.  A  Theism  is  too  cold  for  warm  tempera- 
ments and  too  abstract  for  slow  brains.  It  will 
always  have  its  apostles ;  but  will  it  ever  overspread 
the  earth  "^ 

Tuesday,  February  2jtk.  I  went  this  morning  to 
the  Thanksgiving  Service  at  St  Paul's  for  the  re- 
covery of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  London  was  densely 
crowded,  and  even  yesterday  evening,  when  I  went 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  Z.  S,  127 

up,  the  line  of  procession  from  Buckingham  Palace — 
by  Pall  Mall,  The  Strand,  Fleet  Street,  and  Ludgate 
Hill — was  difficult  of  passage.  Immense  crowds  of 
sightseers  were  reconnoitring  the  ground,  and  pre- 
paring themselves  to  enjoy  to-night's  illuminations 
by  inspecting  the  strange  metallic  anatomies  destined 
by  and  by  to  be  clothed  and  glorified  with  shapes  of 
fire.  Ticketholders  were  warned  and  implored  by 
the  Times,  the  Police,  and  every  oracle  of  earthly 
wisdom,  to  be  early  at  St  Paul's ;  and  to  judge  from 
the  remarks  which  fell  from  the  worthy  Master  of 
Downing,  with  whom  I  came  up  in  the  train,  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  the  rising  sun,  or,  in  its 
absence,  the  earliest  carpenter,  saw  the  dim  form  of 
that  exemplary  man  in  the  lonely  temple.  The 
service  began  on  the  Queen's  arrival,  at  a  few 
minutes  before  one,  and  lasted  just  an  hour.  It  is 
supposed  that  there  were  about  12,000  people  in  the 
cathedral.  It  was  magnificent  when  the  Te  Deum, 
with  which  the  service  began,  burst  forth  under  the 
great  dome,  rolling  strong  waves  of  sound  through 
the  aisles  and  transepts,  till  the  whole  vast  church 
was  flooded  with  a  sea  of  tumultuous  music.  The 
Queen  entered  leaning  on  the  arm  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales.... There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  sublimity  of 
numbers.  As  the  Thanksgiving  Service  was  really 
hearty  and  sincere,  its  great  scale  made  it,  in  a 
manner,  sublime.  Is  it  not  curious  how  a  thought 
or  sentiment  which  for  the  individual,  perhaps,  has 
no  kindling  power,  can  derive  a  sudden  grandeur 
from    the   consciousness    that    it   is   shared    with  a 


128  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

multitude  of  other  minds  ?  The  truth  is,  perhaps, 
that  the  idea  of  greatness  is  unfamiliar  to  most  of  us 
except  in  relation  to  number  or  size  ;  and,  half  un- 
consciously, we  apply  this  material  standard  in  the 
province  of  morals.  A  feeling  which  covers  a 
thousand  square  yards  must,  we  perceive  at  once, 
be  a  great  feeling.  And  then,  of  course,  there  is  a 
certain  electricity  of  concord. 

In  the  crowd  to-day  one  of  the  figures  which 
I  was  amused  in  observing  was  Mr  Disraeli's.  He 
was  clad  in  a  garment  which,  I  believe,  he  greatly 
affects — a  long  white  coat,  designed,  possibly,  to 
assist  the  curious  eye  in  its  search  for  him.  He  was 
paying  his  wife,  Lady  Beaconsfield,  a  degree  of 
attention  so  unusual  in  public,  and  so  very  unusual 
in  church,  as  to  suggest  to  the  cynical  observer  that 
it  could  scarcely  always  be  maintained  in  the  same 
perfection  under  the  accomplished  gentleman's  own 
roof;  but  I  promptly  repressed  this  thought,  as  alto- 
gether unfair  to  the  courteous  author  of  Coningsby. 
Truly  in  this  land  of  precedent,  a  statesman  profits 
by  being  fashionable — fashionable  for  his  novels,  or 
his  eccentricity,  or  his  impudence — for  something, 
at  any  rate,  which  forms  a  brilliant  contrast  to  that 
grim,  tremendous  earnestness  which  we  all  so  pro- 
foundly admire,  which  rules,  and  bores,  the  British 
mind.  For  every  opera-glass  which  was  bent  on 
Gladstone  to-day  in  St  Paul's,  I  am  sure  that  a 
dozen  were  turned  on   Dizzy." 


:872]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  129 


'*  Cambridge, 

March  12th,  1872. 

Spring  has  come — almost  rushed  upon  us — 

'  with  its  golden  lights, 
With  silken  breezes  and  with  spicy  breaths, 
With  kindly  wooings  of  white  flowerets, 
With  welcome  in  a  thousand  violet  eyes,' 

as  Heine  says ;  and  all  the  place  is  bright  and  glad 
under  the  bright  skies.  The  hunting  season  is 
nearly  over,  and  the  period  of  unpractical  riding  is 
beginning.  Now  may  young  men  in  new,  pale 
gloves  be  seen  going  out  on  elderly  horses,  and  a 
few  young  men,  in  older  gloves,  on  newer  horses  : 
now  is  the  turf  by  the  roadside  becoming  brilliant  all 
the  way  to  Madingley,  to  Ely,  to  Abington,  to 
Haslingfield  :  and  Youth,  cantering  smoothly  over 
it,  is  fluently  confidential  to  Age  trotting  at  its  side. 

Now  is  that  ancient  river,  the  river  Cam,  alive 
with  boats  and  with  many-coloured  jerseys  and  with 
crowds  on  the  towing-path.  Now  are  the  streets  and 
gardens  becoming  once  more  brilliant  by  day — and 
the  College  chapels,  with  their  rolling  organ-music, 
by  night — with  the  toilets  of  ladies — in  short,  every- 
thing reminds  one  that  the  mediating  Hours  have 
made  up  the  winter  quarrel  between  the  Graces  and 
the  Muses. 

I  heard  of  a  dialogue  the  other  day  on  the  natural 
beauties  of  Cambridgeshire  :  it  was  to  this  effect. 
Aesthetic  person: — 'Oh,  that  we  had  some  moun- 

j.  M.  9 


1 30  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

tain-scenery  here!'  Practical  and  somewhat  horsy- 
person: —  'It  is  not  everywhere  that  you  can  get 
a  '*tit  up"  over  grass  for  ten  miles  wherever  you 
go.'  This  coarsely  unsympathetic  person  was  not 
altogether  wrong :  and  he  might  have  added  that 
some  of  the  villages  in  this  neighbourhood  are  among 
the  prettiest  in  England — Madingley,  for  instance, 
which  is  a  subject  such  as  Birket  Foster,  or  any  of 
our  water-colourists  of  his  school,  would  paint  well. 
In  May  and  June  these  little  nooks,  which  one  comes 
on  quite  suddenly,  are  really  lovely.  Cambridge  has 
overcome  the  first  austerity  of  Lent,  which  is,  in 
fact,  singularly  uncongenial  to  the  local  views  of  life. 
Small  dinner-parties,  and  concerts  of  varying  size, 
have  been  the  order  of  the  last  fortnight ;  offering 
nothing  which  the  historian  can  regard  as  satisfying 
the  dignity  of  history,  yet  agreeable  at  the  time. 
You  shall  have  a  few  glimpses  of  this  subdued 
drama — too  subdued  to  bear  wholesale  repetition 
without  scenery. 

The  Fitzwilliam  has  just  been  giving  a  rather 
good  concert.  It  was  in  the  hall  of  Sidney,  which 
was  quite  full.  The  '  feature '  (as  newspapers  say) 
of  the  programme  was  'Placida,  the  Christian  martyr' 
— a  cantata  by  a  Mr  Carter.  The  story  belongs  to 
the  reign  of  Nero.  Placida,  the  daughter  of  Metellus, 
a  Roman  magnate,  has  been  converted  to  Christianity 
by  her  own  lady's  maid — whom  the  author,  with  a 
fine  disregard  for  Lempriere,  has  been  pleased  to 
call  Bertha.  The  emperor  has  just  been  publishing 
an    edict    against   this    new   and    sordid    infidelity. 


1872]  Letters  to  C,  L.  S,  131 

Placlda,  arrested  while  praying  with  slaves  in  the 
catacombs,  is  adjured  by  her  father  to  renounce  her 
infamous  superstition ; — refuses — is  condemned  to  the 
beasts  ; — but,  on  her  way  to  the  arena,  swoons  ;  and 
is  saved  from  the  final  agony  by  a  sudden  and  pain- 
less death.  This  dramatic  cantata  was  extremely 
well  sung.  Mrs  Edwin  Clark  (did  you  know  her  ?) 
was  Placida ;  Mrs  Dunn,  Bertha  ;  Mr  Borissow  (a 
Russian,  the  precentor  of  the  Trinity  Choir)  sang  the 
part  of  Metellus  ;  and  Nero  was  represented  by  a 
vigorous  young  bass,  who  had  the  advantage  of 
looking  tyrannical ;  and  whom  it  was  agreeable  to 
observe  joining  in  the  chorus  of  Christians  at  the 
end,  as  if  the  most  difficult  of  sovereigns  had  been 
converted." 


"March  26th,   1872. 

Have   you    ever   considered   the   ethics   of 

locomotion  ? As  we  were  returning  from  the  boat- 
race  Mr  Jasper  More  told  me  this  historical  anecdote. 
Mr  Disraeli,  after  one  of  his  best  speeches,  left  the 
House  with  Mr  Montagu  Corry.  T  was  wondering' 
(Mr  Corry  afterwards  confessed)  'what  a  great  orator 
would  talk  about  just  after  a  successful  speech ' — 
'Corry,'  said  Mr  Disraeli,  'do  you  know  how  to 
get  into  a  cab  ?  Very  few  men  know.  I  was  at 
Vienna  once  when  I  was  a  young  man,  with  Prince 
Gortschakoff  and  another  Englishman,  a  military 
man  who  was  there  on  the  same  business.  A  royal 
carriage  was  sent  to  conduct  us  ;  when  we  came  to 

9—2 


132  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

it,  the  Englishman  walked  straight  up  to  it,  and  got 
in  with  his  back  to  the  horses.  Gortschakoff  said  to 
me — '*  That  Is  the  politest  thing  I  have  ever  seen  an 
Englishman  do  !  "  ' 

He  was  right.  It  is  inconsiderate,  and  therefore 
impolite,  to  occasion  a  needless  embarrassment.  No 
persons  are  so  tiresome  as  those  who  are  possessed 
by  an  indistinct  idea  that  their  first  duty  to  their 
neighbour  is  self-abasement — forgetting  that  their 
first  duty  to  that  unexacting  person  Is  simply  not  to 
make  him  uncomfortable. 

I  shall  leave  Cambridge  in  a  day  or  two ;  indeed 
I  returned  here  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  concluding 
a  course  of  lectures  on  Milton's  Areopagitica  and 
some  of  his  minor  poems  which  I  have  been  giving 
this  term  to  a  class  of  ladies.  One  of  Milton's  Italian 
sonnets,  which  we  have  just  been  reading,  strikes 
me  as  good  in  its  way  ;  it  was  written  during  his 
tour  In  Italy  In  1638-39,  and  is  interesting  as  his 
best  attempt  at  the  language.  He  was  in  love  with 
an  Italian  lady,  one  of  whose  charms  appears  to 
have  been  her  singing.  This  is  a  quite  literal 
translation  in  the  same  metre. 

*  As  on  a  rough  hill  at  brown  evening-time 
The  shepherd  maiden  native  to  the  air 
Waters  some  drooping  plantlet  strange  and  rare, 
Which  scarce  can  bloom  in  the  unwonted  clime, 
Far  from  the  gentler  skies  which  saw  it  spring  ; — 
So  on  my  eager  tongue  which  Love  doth  teach 
Rises  the  new  flower  of  an  alien  speech. 
While  thee, — thee  gracious  in  thy  pride, —  I  sing, 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L.  S.  133 

By  my  good  country-folk  not  understood, 
And  for  the  bright  Thames  change  the  Arno  bright. 
— Love  willed ;  and  others'  trial  of  his  might 
Taught  me  that  Love  can  ever  what  he  would. 
Oh  that  my  sluggish  heart,  my  stubborn  mind, 
Were  for  the  heavenly  seed  a  soil  as  kind ! ' 

Does  not  the  true  Puritan  speak  in  that  last 
couplet  ?  Yet  Milton  surely  could  love  with  all  his 
heart. 

The  Ladies'  College  from  Hitchin  is  going  soon 
to  move  to  Girton,  about  two  miles  from  here.  A 
meeting  was  held  at  Dr  Kennedy's  and  attended  by 
some  of  the  promoters  from  London.  Miss  Davies, 
the  chief  of  these,  is  both  able  and  energetic.  She 
and  Lady  Stanley  of  Alderley  advocated  the  wisdom 
of  giving  a  fete  at  Girton  when  the  first  stone  of  the 
new  building  is  laid  in  May.  The  College  would 
thus  acquire  a  certain  dclat.  The  ladies  thought 
it  would  be  easy  to  procure  the  desirable  princess 
and  the  necessary  bishop.  Others,  of  whom  I  must 
confess  myself  one,  doubted  whether  the  success  of 
the  undertaking  depended  so  much  on  Gunter  and 
Debrett  as  to  make  the  fete  worth  the  trouble." 


**  Desmond,  Killiney, 

April  2yd^   1872. 

When  I  sent  you  last  week  a  translation  from 
Schiller,  I  believed  that  I  had  guessed  the  poem 
alluded  to  in  your  letter  of  March  26th.  Hardly  had 
it  gone,  however,  when  I  became  tolerably  sure  that 


134  '^'zV  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

this  was  not  the  right  one,  and  tolerably  sure,  too, 
what  is  the  right  one.  Shall  I  tell  you  how  ?  I 
was  reading  your  letter  over  again  ;  and  though  I 
thought  that  my  knowledge  of  it  was  already  pretty 
accurate — extending  to  the  principal  commas  and 
all  the  full  stops — I  found  that  certain  inverted 
commas  had  escaped  my  memory.  You  say  of  the 
poem  : — '  The  idea  was  '*  that  longing  for  something 
afar"  which  is  common  enough  in  poetry.'  We  have 
two  very  popular  historians  in  England — Mr  Froude 
the  picturesque,  and  Mr  Freeman  the  exact.  Among 
the  many  and  grievous  sins  which  the  Exact  is 
constantly  laying  to  the  charge  of  the  Picturesque, 
one  of  the  chief  is  the  misuse  of  inverted  commas. 
Read  any  article  on  Mr  Froude  in  the  Saturday 
Review — they  are  generally  by  Mr  Freeman — and 
the  chances  are  you  will  find  this  accusation  grimly 
urged.     Now  I  felt  instinctively  that  you  would  not 

misuse    inverted    commas The    same     mental 

characteristic  which  lends  its  graceful  rigour  to  your 
criticisms  of  our  British  institutions  would  prevent 
you  from  confounding  quotation  with  paraphrase. 
Your  inverted  commas  might,  I  felt,  be  trusted. 
They  enclosed  the  words  '  that  longing  for  some- 
thing afar.'  A  German  word,  or  German  words, 
equivalent  to  these  must,  I  inferred,  be  either  the 
title  of  the  poem,  or  prominent  in  it.  So  I  went 
through  Schiller  again  ;  and  in  the  Poems  of  the 
Third  Period  I  found  one  called  Sehnsucht.  Do 
tell  me  if  this  guess  is  right.  If  it  is,  the  discovery 
ought  to  be  gratifying  to  both  of  us.     It  presupposes, 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L,  S.  135 

on  your  part,  a  gift  denied  to  the  historian  of  the  six- 
teenth century ;  on  mine,  a  correct  inductive  process 
founded  on  your  possession  of  that  gift  as  premiss. 

It  is  singular  that  in  the  search  for  your  poem  I 
should  have  hit  upon  that  which  I  sent  you  last 
week — Die  der  schaffende  Geist,  etc.  ;  which 
Schiller  calls  Die  Grosse  der  Welt.  That  poem 
and  Sehnsucht  so  strikingly  illustrate  and  com- 
plete each  other.  They  ought,  indeed,  to  be  read 
together.  Together  they  express  a  single  idea — 
the  sphere  and  the  conditions  of  rest  for  an  ardent, 
imaginative  nature. 

That  rest  can  be  found  only  by  following  the 
highest  aspirations — the  desire,  from  the  valley,  for 
the  hills  ;  it  demands  some  faith  and  some  venture — 
*  Du  musst  glauben,  du  musst  wagen  ' — '  for  the 
gods  give  no  pledge.'  On  the  other  hand  the 
search  for  this  rest  will  be  pushed  beyond  the  point 
at  which  it  is  really  to  be  found,  unless  a  certain 
restraining  spiritual  tact  detects  the  invisible  line. 
The  finite  cannot  reach  the  infinite.  For  all  human 
nature,  repose  is  compromise.  No  eager  mind  can 
satisfy  all  longings,  or  expel  every  disturbing  force. 
The  nearest  approach  to  absolute  peace  possible  for 
it  has  been  made,  when,  following  its  own  highest 
impulses,  it  has  reached  the  point  where  incom- 
patible bents  of  aspiration  cross. 

'  Steh  !  du  segelst  umsonst — Unendlichkeit  vor  dir  ! ' 
'  Steh  !  du  segelst  umsonst,  Pilger,  auch  hinter  mir ! ' 

Senke  nieder, 

Adlergedank',  dein  Gefieder. 


136  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

I  am  glad  you  like  Schiller  better  than  Goethe. 
So  have  I  always  done,  and  perhaps  for  the  same 
reasons.  Goethe's  mind  was  at  once  more  powerful 
and  finer  than  Schiller's.  But  over  all  Goethe's 
work  there  is  the  coldness  and  vagueness  of  moral 
apathy;  as  his  life  proved,  he  was  incapable  of  an 
unselfish  devotion  ;  he  had  one  sovereign  aim,  which 
he  pursued  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other — the 
crowning  of  '  the  pyramid '  of  his  own  culture. 
Schiller  was  narrower,  but  he  had  moral  earnest- 
ness ;  he  was  more  intense,  he  was  infinitely  nobler, 
and  these  things  are  worth  more  in  a  poet — might  we 
not  say,  in  a  man  ? — than  any  genius  for  analysis." 


"  KiLLINEY, 

May  ^th,   1872. 

So  you  are  fairly  charmed  with  Goethe  \  When 
you  said — six  weeks  ago — that  you  liked  Schiller 
better,  I  thoroughly  agreed  ;  but  I  knew,  too,  from 
my  own  experience  and  that  of  others,  that  if  you 
had  not  already  passed  through  the  phase  of  admir- 
ing Goethe,  that  phase,  at  least,  was  likely  to  come. 
Attraction  or  repulsion — nothing  between  these  is 
possible  under  that  imperious  spell.  What  the  author 
of  Ecce  Homo  says  of  moral  development  is  quite  as 
true,  I  think,  in  regard  to  the  epochs  of  our  intel- 
lectual life.  Crises  in  the  expansion  of  our  ideas, 
like  crises  in  the  formation  of  our  characters,  are 

^  His  correspondent  had  been  reading  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit 
and  fell  under  the  "  daemonic  "  spell. 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L,  S.  137 

more  often  determined  by  personal  than  by  logical 
influences.  What  kind  of  book  is  it,  the  reading  of 
which  opens  a  distinct  era  in  the  life  and  growth  of 
one's  thoughts  ?  Nearly  always,  a  book  which  bears 
the  impress  of  a  strong,  daring,  human  personality. 
One  reads  for  the  first  time  Mill's  Logic  or  Mill's 
Essay  on  Liberty :  it  fixes  in  the  mind  a  number  of 
new  truths,  clear,  precise,  demonstrated  as  rigidly  as 
a  mathematical  theorem.  The  mental  gain  can  be 
accurately  estimated.  One  is  richer  by  such  or  such 
a  number  of  distinct  perceptions.  But  the  gain  is 
in  knowledge,  not  in  faculty.  The  perceptions  thus 
acquired  have  a  value  strictly  limited  by  their  own 
definiteness.  They  belong  to  a  province  ;  they  have 
no  inherent  virtue  to  illuminate,  outside  that  pro- 
vince, the  whole  field  of  external  life — still  less  to  light 
up  the  dark  corners  of  one's  own  nature.  Again — 
take  a  creative  artist  of  the  type  most  completely 
represented  by  Shakespeare.  In  Shakespeare's 
dramas  the  whole  world  is  mirrored  ;  one  has  the 
delight  of  recognising  as  faithful  a  great  range  of 
portraits ;  the  imagination  and  the  sense  of  beauty 
are  charmed  as  in  a  picture-gallery.  But  no  electric 
impulse  is  communicated  which  can  carry  the  mind 
forward  to  creative  or  analytic  effort  on  its  own 
account ;  the  net  gain  is  enjoyment,  with  perhaps 
help  to  reflection — not  a  permanent  deepening  of 
insight  or  enlargement  of  power. 

The  effect  is  altogether  different  when  one  is 
brought  into  direct  contact  with  a  mind  of  original 
force  which  is   not  merely  interpretative   but  self- 


138  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

interpreting;  which,  in  the  act  of  explaining,  stamps 
itself  on  what  it  explains,  and  shows  the  phenomena 
with  which  it  deals  not  simply  by  but  thi^ougk  its  own 
light.  The  truths  which  such  a  mind  can  impart 
differ  from  those  conveyed  by  minds  of  the  other 
types  as  algebraic  results  differ  from  arithmetical. 
The  latter  are  concrete,  the  former  universal :  in  the 
one  case  one  learns  facts  ;  in  the  other  case  one 
grasps  methods  applicable  to  all  quantities  what- 
soever. Is  not  this  a  significant  commentary  on  the 
maxim  that  '  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man  '  ? 
The  largest  and  most  fruitful  acquisitions  which  a 
human  mind  can  make  are  to  be  made  by  studying 
not  the  inferences  but  the  processes  of  another 
mind.  What  is  distinctive  of  Goethe's  observ- 
ing power  is  that  he  could  look  at  himself  from 
without,  while  he  looked  at  the  outer  world  as  from 
its  own  centre.  Hence  his  remarks  on  life  are  in  a 
wonderful  measure  free  from  the  disturbance  of  self- 
delusion  ;  one  feels  in  them  the  intimate  fidelity  of 
unexaggerated  personal  experience. 

The  other  great  secret  of  Goethe's  fascination  is 
his  absolute  self-reliance.  I  have  always  thought 
that  the  most  striking  proof  of  that  was  his  feeling 
about  a  future  life.  He  believed  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  on  the  general  ground  that  Nature  could 
not  afford  the  extinction  of  any  vital  principle.  But 
he  refused  to  lean  on  this  belief,  or  to  discount  it  by 
borrowing  from  it  strength  to  go  through  the  mortal 
time.      In  this  he  was  as  much  stronger  than  those 


1872]  Letters  to  C,  L.  S.  139 

who,  like  Mill  or  George  Eliot,  do  their  duty  while 
they  disbelieve,  as  a  man  temperate  in  the  use  of 
wine  shows  more  real  self-command  than  a  total 
abstainer." 


'*/u/y  30M,   1872. 

The  heat  of  the  weather  in  America  seems  to 
have  been  even  greater  than  the  heat  of  a  presiden- 
tial election,  though  it  would  not  have  been  exactly 
a  happy  metaphor  to  say  that  it  had  thrown  the 
latter  into  the  shade.... Well,  what  solace  or  advice 
can  I  give  you  with  your  thermometer  at  85°  or 
thereabouts?  In  spite  of  Shakespeare's  remark  that 
it  is  vain  to  think  of  the  frosty  Caucasus  with  a  view 
to  holding  fire  in  one's  hand,  I  should  recommend 
you  to  think  of  cool  things.     Think  of 

'  Daffodils 
That  come  before  the  swallow  dares  and  take 
The  winds  of  March  with  beauty ' — 

Think  of 

*  The  moving  waters  at  their  priest-like  task 
Of  pure  ablution  round  earth's  human  shores  ' — 

and  think — oh,  think — of  your  having  sent  me  just 
two  sheets  of  that  odiously  small  and  ladylike  note 
paper  (may  the  years  of  Parkins  and  Gotto  be 
scanty)  after  six  weeks.  Rest  on  your  sofa  and  we 
will  write  to  you — and  if  the  reflections  suggested 
don't  bring  you  a  delicious  sense  of  coolness,  I  can 
only  say  that  they  ought." 


140  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [187; 


"  Cambridge, 
August^  1872. 

I  was  so  delighted  to  get  your  letter  last  night. 
I  had  just  come  back  from  one  of  those  little  dinner- 
parties which  often  make  a  pleasant  ending  to  one 
of  our  breezy,  bright  August  days,  and  there — the 
first  thing  the  light  flashed  upon — was  your  letter ! 
There  it  lay,  it  did  not  vanish  when  it  was  looked 
at ;  it  stayed  where  it  was,  quiet,  palpable,  divinely 
self-possessed  ;  like  one  of  those  good  gifts  of  the 
gods  which  men  used  to  find  in  the  valleys  and 
woods,  or  on  wild  mountain  paths,  where  Pan 
or  Hermes  had  passed  ;  like  a  good  young  man's 
prosperity  in  the  third  volume  ;  like  anything  happy 
which  comes  sudden  and  seldom  into  the  hard  world 
of  fact.  And  then  this  bright  windfall  allowed  itself 
to  be  touched — even  to  be  read  through,  not  once 
only  ;  and  how  glad  I  was  to  find  that  you  were 
well,  after  all  that  dreadful  heat,  and  to  hear  all 
about  your  life  at  Erie,  and  the  delightful  Ger- 
mans, and  the  ladies  with  limited  conversational 
resources 

Have  you  looked  at  Victor  Hugo's  new  book, 
L'annde  terrible, — the  Year  of  the  War  .^^  It  seems 
to  me,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  to  contain  some  very 
grand  and  some  very  tender  poetry — so  much  I  can 

dimly  feel What  I  like  best  in  him,  is  always 

something  which  expresses  more  or  less  simply  a 
definite  human  feeling — these  lines  for  instance  to  a 


1872]  Letters  to  C.  L,  S,  141 

Trappist  Brother,  an  old  friend,  in  the  Monastery 
of  La  Meilleraye  (it  is  almost  a  shame  to  translate 
them) — 

My  brother — ah,  the  tempest  has  been  strong ! 
The  furious  wind  that  lashes  us  along 

From  rock  to  hidden  rock 
Swept,  at  our  parting,  the  deep  waters  dark 
With  furrowing  wing,  and  hurled  upon  thy  bark 

The  billows'  thunderous  shock — 

So  that,  for  terror  of  that  instant  death, 

To  ease  the  boat  that  reeled  to  that  fierce  breath. 

Which  those  waves  yawned  to  merge, 
Each  in  its  turn,  joy,  freedom,  fantasy, 
Home — treasured  things — last  treasure,  poesy — 

Were  cast  into  the  surge ! 

And  now  at  last — lo,  desolate,  forlorn, 
Where  the  waves  go  thou  goest,  patient,  worn. 

By  whom  no  strand  is  trod  : 
Having  in  thy  boat,  dissevered  by  the  gale 
From  ours,  two  things — thy  compass  and  thy  sail — 

Thy  soul— thy  God  ! " 


"  Cambridge, 
December  ^rd^   1872. 

When  I  came  back  to  Trinity  last  night,  I  found 
a  note — from  v^hom  do  you  suppose  ? — from  Miss 
Thackeray,  dated  the  '  Bull  Hotel '  and  asking  me 
to  dine  there  w^ith  her  and  some  friends  the  next 
day.  It  was  such  a  delightful  party — the  Fresh- 
fields,  Miss  Ritchie,  Mr  Ritchie  their  brother,  Mr 
Hallam  Tennyson,  the  poet's  eldest  son,  who  has 


142  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1872 

just  come  up  to  Trinity,  and  Mr  Henry  Sidgwick. 
Mr  Tennyson  was  to  have  come  but  had  a  cold 
and  telegraphed  at  the  last  moment.  We  had 
fun  ;  among  other  amusements,  we  marked  some  of 
our  common  friends  for  (i)  Appearance,  (2)  Heart, 
(3)  Intellect,  (4)  Manners,  (5)  Sense  of  Humour.  The 
worst  of   that    game   is  that  one  can  never  forget 

what  happened  to  the  inventor  of  the  guillotine 

You  cannot  think  how  charming  Miss  Thackeray 
is  ;  it  is  the  charm  of  a  perfectly  good  heart  and  a 

great  wit  enshrined  in  a  lady 

Have  you  read  her  Memoir  of  Sir  Edwin 
Landseer  ?  It  is  in  the  Cornhill.  What  strikes  me 
about  it,  as  regards  her,  is  the  manner  in  which  it 
marks  one  trait  of  her  vivid  and  innocent  brightness 
— her  fairy-like  way  of  viewing  life.  Read  the  part 
about  Landseer  rouging  the  beauties  for  the  Fancy 
Ball.  Over  this,  however,  is  gradually  coming  some- 
what of  her  father's  seriousness  in  social  teaching." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CAMBRIDGE   LIFE   AND   WORK. 
1872 — 1874. 

In  1872  R.  C.  Jebb  had  been  appointed  a  tutor  of 
Trinity.  In  many  ways  the  position  was  agreeable 
to  him.  He  Hked  the  bright  friendHness  of  young 
men,  for  some  of  whom  he  soon  grew  to  have  an 
affection,  and  he  knew  enough  of  the  heedless  follies 
of  their  age  to  give  them  more  sympathy  than 
rebuke  in  their  scrapes  and  troubles.  Once,  when 
some  men  went  so  far  as  to  stop  a  mailcart — fortu- 
nately empty — remove  the  driver  and  take  the  reins 
into  their  own  hands — thereby  bringing  themselves 
very  much  within  the  reach  of  the  law  ;  when  an 
Official  came  down  from  London  to  make  inquiries, 
and  terror  filled  their  minds  with  visions  of  a 
possible  gaol  and  certainly  irate  parents — he  suc- 
ceeded in  pacifying  the  stern  instrument  of  the  law  ; 
who  even  consented  to  stay  and  dine,  and  join  in  a 
loving  cup  with  the  chief  criminal,  having  discovered 
the  latter  to  be  the  son  of  an  old  friend. 

But  there  were  other  duties  belonging  to  a  tutor  s 
office  which  no  ingenuity  could  make  agreeable  to  a 
man  whose  nature  abhorred  accounts,  and  who  felt 
it  almost  an  impertinence  to  watch  over  a  pupils 


1 44  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

outlay,  and  check  his  kitchen  expenses.  After  two 
years  of  tutorial  work,  he  resigned  the  position  and 
felt  a  great  relief  when  disburdened  of  duties  some 
of  which  were  so  alien  to  his  nature. 

Early  in  1873  he  brought  out  a  book  of  Trans- 
lations into  Greek  and  Latin  verse  which  excited 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  friends,  and  also  brought 
him  a  letter  from  Robert  Browning  whose  Abt 
Vogler  was  one  of  the  poems  translated. 

"19  Warwick  Crescent,  W., 
July  2,0th,  1873. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  your  beautiful  Book, 
very  proud  of  the  Greek  dress  you  make  my  poem  wear  so 
prominently  on  its  first  page.  I  thank  you  indeed  for 
almost  giving  me  the  right  to  admire  my  own  work,  which 
I  shall  henceforth  associate  with  yours. 

Robert  Browning." 

From  Mr  Frederic  Myers. 

''May  loth,  1873. 
My  Dear  Jebb, 

I  have  just  been  to  the  Education  Office  where 
I  found  your  splendid  book,  for  which  I  ^\w^  you  most 
hearty  thanks.  I  have  been  reading  it  aloud  to  myself 
ever  since,  and  have  only  time  to  scrawl  this  line  to  you 
before  the  Saturday  post  goes  out.  I  opened  on  the 
Nativity  Ode  and  was  fascinated.  I  will  back  myself  to 
obtain  as  much  pleasure  from  the  words  Non  conferentum 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  145 

signa  cohortiwn  as  any  one  else  in  England.  Then  I  turned 
to  Abt  Vogler  which  was  like  a  solemn  spectacle  defiling 
before  my  eyes — of  course  I  have  not  yet  mastered  it,  but 
it  is  indeed  noble. 

I  congratulate  you  on  the  production  of  a  book  which 
I  honestly  do  not  believe  that  any  one  in  the  world  could 
match  in  its  own  line  of  scholarship  etherealised  into  an 
emotion  and  then  crystallised  into  an  enduring  joy." 

To  C.  L.  S. 

*'  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
February  11th,  1873. 

I  told  you  that  Cambridge  and  Trinity  had  lost 
their  oldest  resident — Adam  Sedgvi^ick,  our  professor 
of  geology,  and  the  founder,  almost,  of  the  science  in 
England,  who  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven.  The 
memory  of  the  famous  old  man,  so  much  loved  and 
honoured  here,  has  filled  our  thoughts  more  than 
anything  else  since  then  :  and  if  I  dwell  upon  it  at 
what  may  seem  great  length  in  writing  to  one  who 
did  not  know  him  personally,  it  is  because  thus  I 
shall  most  truly  place  you  in  imagination  among  us. 
He  was  buried  in  the  Chapel  of  Trinity.  No  one 
who  saw  that  sight  can  forget  it. 

On  Saturday  the  3rd,  at  a  quarter  to  eleven,  the 
officers  of  the  University  and  the  invited  strangers 
met  at  the  Master's  Lodge.  The  Fellows  and 
Undergraduates  of  Trinity  met  in  the  College  Hall. 
At  eleven  thirty,  the  procession  set  out  from  Sedg- 
wick's rooms.  The  chief  mourners,  and  the  four 
senior  Fellows,  walked  with  the  bier.  At  the  door 
of  the  Master's  Lodge  they  paused,  and  the  company 

J.  M.  10 


146  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

which  had  met  there  fell  In.  First  after  the  bier 
came  the  Bishops  of  Norwich  and  Ely, — the  peers 
who  had  come,  and  the  Deans  of  Ely  and  West- 
minster. Then  the  Heads  of  Houses, — then  I  (as 
Public  Orator), — then  the  Professors  and  Doctors, 
the  Members  of  Council,  the  Members  for  the  Uni- 
versity in  Parliament.  The  procession  moved  to  the 
foot  of  the  Hall  steps  :  then  turned  to  the  left,  and 
moved  across  the  paved  pathway  which  traverses  the 
Court  in  a  line  parallel  with  the  Chapel.  As  the 
last  of  those  who  had  joined  it  at  the  Lodge  came 
up,  another  line,  from  the  Hall,  fell  in  behind  them, 
— viz.,  the  Fellows,  Undergraduates  and  ordinary 
guests.  The  procession  did  not  turn  to  the  left 
from  the  line  parallel  to  the  Chapel,  by  what  would 
have  been  the  shortest  way  to  the  Chapel,  so  as 
to  pass  the  Fountain  :  but  held  on  till  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Court  was  reached,  and  then  turned 
towards  the  Great  Gateway.  The  train  was  so  long 
that  the  foremost  had  reached  the  Gate  before  the 
last  had  left  the  Hall.  As  the  bier  passed  the  gate, 
the  Choir  and  the  Clergy,  headed  by  the  Master, 
advanced,  white-robed  and  bare-headed,  from  the 
Chapel ;  the  low,  sweet  chanting  of  the  Choir,  as 
they  drew  nearer,  singing  '  I  am  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life,'  for  the  first  time  broke  the  stillness. 

Imagine  the  scene  at  that  moment.  There  was 
snow  on  the  ground,  throwing  into  stronger  relief 
the  long  black  line  drawn  across  two  whole  sides  of 
that  vast  court :  the  bier  was  approaching  the  door 
of  the  Chapel,  now  preceded  by  the  Choir,  who,  as 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  147 

they  met  it,  had  turned — the  anthem  rising  fuller 
and  fuller, — and  all  men  thinking  that  here,  at  last, 
was  the  last  step  of  a  journey  begun  in  far-off  times, 
among  faces  and  thoughts  which  for  us  were  only 
history — a  journey  made,  through  all  those  years,  in 
the  strength  of  a  single-hearted,  fearless  love  of 
truth,  and  of  goodwill  to  all  men — goodwill  never 
clouded  to  the  very  end  by  the  lonely  living  on  in  a 
world  become  half-strange.  How  we  must  all  have 
thought  then  of  the  bright  words  and  looks  we  could 
remember  of  his,  and  felt  that,  with  our  faces  turned 
towards  his  grave,  we  had  our  faces  beginning  to 
turn  away  from  the  tradition  of  a  whole  age, — that 
this  was  more  than  a  parting  from  a  great  man, 
more  than  a  parting  between  two  generations, — a 
parting,  for  us,  between  an  old  time  and  a  new. 

Stanley  preached  at  St  Mary's  the  next  day — 
Sunday.  The  University  Church  was  densely 
crowded, — fuller,  even,  than  the  Sunday  before. 
People  were  sitting  on  the  steps  of  the  chancel. 
All  the  University  people  were  in  mourning.  The 
Dean  of  Westminster  took  as  his  text — *  Ye  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth — ye  are  the  light  of  the  world.' 
He  insisted  on  two  things  as  cardinal  in  Christianity 
— purity  and  light.  He  used  a  clever  illustration  of 
the  possible  uses  of  obstructiveness  and  error — he 
said  that  they  were  like  the  motes  without  which  we 

could  not  see  the  sunbeam At  the  end  Stanley 

showed  how  good  old  Sedgwick  had  exemplified  his 
text :  and  did  it  well.  Yesterday  I  was  talking  to 
the  V.C.  (Dr  Cookson  of  St  Peter's)  about  Sedgwick, 


148  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1873 

and  found  that  he  thought  him  greater  intellectually 
than  Whewell.     More  of  the  temperament,  at  least, 

of  genius  he  certainly  had 

To-night  I  am  going  to  dine  with  the  Committee 

of  my  dearly  beloved  Pitt  Club Our  host  this 

evening  is  a  very  nice  Eton  boy  who  has  just  come 
up  to  Trinity,  Lord  Stopford.  It  is  so  pleasant 
now  and  then  to  have  an  opportunity  of  seeing  in 
this  way  some  of  the  best  undergraduates,  not  as  a 
*  don,'  but  as  the  head  of  one  of  their  own  societies. 
I  am  president  now  of  two  undergraduate  clubs — 
a  distinction  which  I  value  most  of  all  for  this,  that 
nothing  has  ever  helped  me  so  much  in  my  ad- 
ministrative work  here  as  the  mutual  goodwill  kept 
perpetually  fresh  by  this  intercourse." 

Among  the  undergraduates  of  this  time  was 
Sir  Charles  Villiers  Stanford,  whose  great  musical 
gifts  were  even  then  well  known.  He  writes  to  me 
that,  on  applying  to  Jebb,  as  Head  Lecturer,  to  be 
excused  from  the  College  examination  in  1873,  he 
got  leave  in  the  following  couplet : 

Quid  tibi  Musa  neget  ?    trutinam  lacrimosa  parabit. 
Si  fugis  examen,  tollere  Musa  suam. 

R.  C.  J. 

Some  years  later  Jebb  borrowed  from  Sir  Charles 
Stanford  a  key  of  the  Fellows'  Garden  and  forgot 
to  return  it ;  when  asked  for  it,  he  sent  with  it  two 
verses  : 

Clave  quid  ablata  silvis  excluditur  Orpheus? 
Ne  domitum  vates  auferat  ipse  nemus. 

R.  C.  J. 


873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  149 


Letters  to  C.  L.  S. 

"  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 

February  25/y^,   1873. 

Cambridge  is  generally  most  exemplary  and  in- 
dustrious in  amusing  itself  for  the  last  fortnight  or 
three  weeks  before  Lent.  This  year  it  has  been 
rather  less  so  than  usual.  Since  I  wrote  on  the 
nth,  nothing  very  miraculous  has  happened:  but 
what  has  happened,  you  shall  hear :  the  diary  form 
will  be  best  this  time. 

Saturday,  February  \^th.  An  evening  party  at 
Miss  Clough's.  Did  you  know  that  charming  old 
lady  ?  She  has  set  up  a  sort  of  boarding-house  for 
ladies  who  come  to  attend  the  Cambridge  Lectures 
for  Women  :  there  are  about  six  of  them  with  her 
now.  She  interests  me,  because  she  is  Arthur 
Clough's  sister,  and  then  because  she  is  herself:  he 
and  she  must  have  been  much  alike.  These  evening 
parties  are  always  pleasant :  the  only  drawback  is 
that  she  asks  too  many  people,  and  rather  over- 
crowds the  rooms  at  '  Merton  Hall,'  as  their  house 
at  the  Backs  is  called.  The  male  sex  is  generally 
represented  by  the  same  select  group  of  the  faithful : 
no  heretic  profanes  the  hearth 

Sunday ,  February  i6th.  Mr  William  Morris,  the 
poet,  dined  in  hall  with  his  friend  Mr  Eric  Magnusson, 
the  Icelander,  who  has  worked  with  him  at  the  Sagas. 


150  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

Mr  Morris  Is  a  rough,  self-centred,  passionate,  odd, 
almost  wild,  man.  Mr  Magnusson  tells  me  that  he 
and  Morris  agree  in  thinking  that  the  supreme  joy 
is  to  get  away  from  all  the  restraints  of  conventional 
life — to  Iceland,  say,  or  to  Central  Africa.  I  can 
never  quite  believe  in  a  man  who  tells  you  what  a 
charming  child  of  nature  he  is,  what  agony  it  is  to 
him  to  have  to  dress  like  other  people,  and  to  use  a 
knife  and  fork,  and  to  wind  up  his  watch. 

Monday,  February  lyth,  Mr  Paley — your  friend 
— read  a  paper  at  the  Philosophical  Society  to  show 
that  the  Odyssey  is  a  Solar  Myth — an  allegory  of 
the  sun's  journey  from  east  to  west — Ulysses  being 
the  setting  sun.  It  was  a  mass  of  that  half-crazy 
ingenuity  in  which  comparative  mythologists  almost 
rival  the  expounders  of  scriptural  types.  Penelope, 
for  instance,  was  made — what  } — the  Clouds,  whose 
night-work  is  taken  down  every  morning  by  the  sun. 
This  kind  of  puerility  is  to  me  intolerable  and  loath- 
some. I  could  not  restrain  myself — I  got  up  and 
replied,  and  had  the  meeting  with  me — explained 
the  etymology  of  the  name  of  Odysseus  which  all 
the  scientific  philologers  now  accept,  'the  Hater' — 
an  old  heroic  name  from  the  majesty  of  anger, — a 
very  natural  name  in  a  rude  time,  not,  as  the  old 
people  took  it,  from  the  anger  of  the  gods  with  him — 
and  then  dwelt,  as  far  as  needed,  on  the  really  con- 
clusive argument  against  the  solar  notion — the  strong 
and  varied  and  essentially  human  interest  of  the 
Odyssey.      An  ingenious    Irish  author  has  already 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  151 

proved,  in  a  jeu  d esprit  which  deserves  renown, 
that  Max  Muller  is  the  sun.  The  legend  takes  the 
common  form  of  a  great  teacher  coming  from  the 
East.  As  I  suggested  to  our  friend  Paley,  Columbus 
is  obviously  the  sun.  It  was  splendid  fun.  The 
Master  of  Sidney  and  Miss  Phelps  were  there  ;  and 
Miss  Phelps  and  I  discussed  it  further — (Oh  seat  of 
learning  !) — in  a  valse  at  the  X.'s. 

Tuesday,  February  i^tk.  Dance  at  the  X.'s. 
Mrs  X.  introduced  me  to  a  lady  who  knew  some 
friends  of  mine.  This  lady  is  supposed  to  have 
been  destined — other  projects  failing — for  our  friend, 
Dr  Y.  But  where  all  human  aid  seemed  more  than 
vain,  Nature  herself — in  her  own  royal  person — 
has  come  to  the  aid  of  that  much  vexed  mortal. 
The  wisdom  of  the  serpent  and  the  coolness  of  the 
First  Napoleon  have  added  themselves  spontaneously 
to  the  original  thorough  goodness  and  amiability. 
The  adder  of  the  psalmist  might  be  said  to  have  a 
really  good  ear  for  music — to  be  really  carefully 
attentive  when  the  charmer  spoke  or  sang — com- 
pared with  Dr  Y.      It  is  no  go " 

''April,   1873. 

Gerald  Balfour  and  I  left  Naples  at  4  p.m. 

on  Sunday,  April  20th.  We  said  goodbye  at  the 
station  to  our  two  friends,  who  went  to  spend  four 
days  more  at  Capri,  that  island  of  the  blest.  Travel- 
ling all  night  through  the  rugged    scene  of  those 


152  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [^873 

Samnite  wars  so  afflicting  to  the  earlier  years  of 
British  youth,  through  a  country  which,  as  the 
shades  of  night  fell,  seemed  to  bristle  with  unquiet 
and  avenging  dates  and  with  gaunt  spectres  of 
consuls,  who,  to  judge  from  their  universal  incapacity, 
must  have  been  chosen  by  the  Senate  of  the  time 
simply  in  the  educational  interests  of  posterity,  we 
came  out  in  the  early  morning  on  the  fair,  quiet 
shore  of  the  Adriatic, — with  lovely  Ancona  tranquil 
on  its  rocky  seat  in  the  sunshine  beside  the  waves. 
I  should  have  so  liked  to  stop  there.  At  Bologna 
we  had  about  two  hours  to  spare — the  train  from 
Rome  was  late — and  most  of  that  time  we  spent 
before  the  great  picture  in  the  gallery — Raphael's 
picture  of  St  Cecilia  listening  to  the  music  of  the 
angels.  She  is  the  centre  of  a  group.  Before  her 
on  the  ground  lie  the  instruments  of  the  earthly 
music,  half-broken,  unstrung ;  they  have  fallen  from 
her  hands  and  from  the  hands  of  the  saints  around 
her :  all  are  listening  to  the  music  of  the  heavenly 
choir  enthroned  in  the  clouds  above  them.  Cecilia 
is  made  a  rich,  physically  powerful  being.  This  is 
wise,  else  she  could  hardly  have  given  the  impression 
of  full  happiness  without  excitement.  St  Paul  is 
leaning  on  his  sword,  with  downcast  eyes,  listening 
intently  ;  there  is  a  folded  paper  in  his  hands — the 
written  revelation  which  must  be  silent  in  the 
presence  of  the  heavenly  harmonies, — silent,  too, 
because  fulfilled.  St  John  and  St  Augustine  are 
listening  too — but  not  quite  silently, — in  whispered 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  153 

conversation,  because  they  are  there  to  mark  and 
learn  ;  they  are  neither  the  voice  which  has  spoken, 
nor  the  voice  which  is  being  attuned  through  the 
ear  to  speaking.  The  Magdalen  is  made  openly 
unsympathetic :  I  could  have  said,  coarsely  un- 
sympathetic, did  one  not  feel  the  artist's  purpose  : 
this  figure  is  meant  to  help  us  in  feeling  the  delicate 
scale  of  expression  which  discriminates  the  other 
four — Cecilia — Paul — John — Augustine.  It  is  a  great 
picture, — a  picture  which  moves   one  like  a  great 

poem,  or  like  such  music  as  it  symbolises 

Did  I  ever  write  to  you  about  my  friend  Fred. 
Myers,  the  author  of  a  poem  called  *St  Paul'  which 
had  a  good  rdeal  of  success  some  years  ago  ?  He 
writes  to^^teil  me  that  he  is  coming  here  in  three 
weeks  or  so,  with  George  Eliot.  I  send  you  the 
'  Pindaric  Ode '  in  which  he  informs  me  of  these 
facts  ;  it  will  amuse  you." 

^^  Pindaric  Ode. 

The  ideas  are  here  supplied:  the  Greek  may  be  filled  in 
by  the  reader  for  himself. 

Strophe. 
Many  the  feasts, 
Many   the    public    and    private    companies    of   academic 

men. 
Some,  as  I  have  heard,  in  the  Senate-house,  and  in  the 

chambers  of  wise  men,  some 
Where  the  Orator  in  May 
Crowned  with  red  roses  stands,  and  in  his  right  hand  high 

he  bears 


154  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

Foaming  from   Trinity    Hall,  spluttering   within    it    with 

the  dew  of  soda-water, 
The  Cup,  the  silvern  heirloom,  the  academic  crown. 

A  ntistrophe. 
Therefore  in  time 

I  to  the  Orator  call,  crying  across  the  sedgy  Cam, — 

Bidding  him  take  forth  ivory  tablets  and  write  thereon 

unforgotten  words, — 
Calling  him  to  solemn  feast, — 
Saying, — after  the  boat-race  on   Monday  the  nineteenth 

of  May 
There  is  supper  in  my  brother's  rooms,  and  the  grace  of 

women,  and  I  myself 
Am  there,  and  others  also,  whom  gladly  thou   shalt  see. 

Epode. 
Come  then  !  and  yet  again 
Shortly  another  message  shall  fly  to  thee  on  the  herald's 

wand  ; 
For  men  say  that  there  is  a  woman  now, 
Man-named,    anonymous,    known    of    all,    George    Eliot, 

wiser  than  the  wise, 
Her  too,  methinks,  my  subtle  net  shall   bear  within   the 

academic  wall : 
Her   too   in    season    thou    must   see:    and    season   comes 

occasionally    to   the   wise   and    the   unwise,  and   not 

even  the  very  rich  can  reach  the  brazen  heaven, 

and  a  good  many  more  reflections  of  the  same  kind." 

"Trinity  College, 
Cambridge, 

May  21  ih,  1873. 
It  would  be  most  natural  to  begin  by  telling  you 
of  the  ordinary    May    Term    doings,  perhaps,   but 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  155 

another  subject  is  uppermost  in  my  thoughts  just 
now, — an  event  in  any  life,  and  a  large  event  in 
mine.  I  have  met  'George  Eliot'  (Mrs  Lewes) 
again,  and  found  such  great  happiness  in  knowing 
her  better.  Friendship  is  a  word  varying  in  large- 
ness of  sense  with  the  largeness  of  the  nature  ;  and 
her  friendship  means  a  great  deal.  She  and  her 
husband  came  to  Cambridge  for  a  few  days  with  one 
of  my  oldest  friends,  Mr  Frederic  Myers.  I  had 
known  Mrs  Lewes  before ;  but  acquaintanceship 
sprang  into  friendship  by  one  of  those  impulses 
which  cannot  be  explained  except  by  some  hidden 

law   asserting  itself  in   a   moment; one  of  the 

things  which  brought  our  minds  closest  together 
was  a  talk  about  criticism  :  I  was  saying  (a  propos 
of  Pater's  essays  on  the  Renaissance)  that  the 
'  precious '  school  seemed  to  be  destroying  every- 
thing— their  finesses  and  small  affectations  blinding 
people's  eyes  to  the  great  lineaments  of  the  great 
creative  works, — blinding  them  to  the  mind  which 
speaks  from  these  faces  : — the  creators,  if  they  could 
revive,  would  never  know  their  own  thoughts  under 
this  veil  of  finikin  yet  thoroughly  opaque  ingenuities. 
Her  face  lit  up  in  a  moment,  and  she  said,  *  It  is 
such  a  comfort  and  a  strength  to  hear  you  say  that' — 
and  then  she  said  why,  so  eloquently.  I  asked  her 
how  Sophocles  had  influenced  her  : — (we  had  been 
talking  about  him,  and  she  had  said  that  she  first 
came  to  know  him  through  a  small  book  of  mine) : — 
and  her  answer  certainly  startled  me.  Probably  all 
people, — or  most  people  who  have  any  inner  life  at 


156  Sii^  Richa  rd  Jebb  [1873 

all — sometimes  write  down  things  meant  for  no  eye 
but  their  own.  Long  ago  I  was  putting  down  in  this 
way  some  things  that  had  been  passing  through  my 
mind  about  Sophocles,  and  this  among  the  rest, — 
that  George  Eliot  wa?  the  modern  dramatist  (in  the 
large  sense)  most  like  him,  and  that  he  had  told 
upon  her  work  probably  in  the  outlining  of  the  first 
emotions.  Her  answer  to  my  question  was — *in  the 
delineation  of  the  great  primitive  emotions.'  Verbally 
this  was  an  accident ;  but  hardly  in  substance.     Of 

course  I  did  not  tell  her.    But  was  it  not  curious  ? 

Her  husband  is  very  delightful: — he  is  accomplished, 
and  he  has  a  good  heart.  What  I  admire  in  him  is 
his  faithfulness  in  laying  everything — knowledge, 
social  power,  reputation,  all,  at  his  illustrious  wife's 

feet We  went  together  to  the  Choral  Festival  at 

King's,  and  as  I  was  walking  with  her,  I  heard  some 
people  whisper — 'Mr  Lewes  is  here;  but  is  she  here.'^' 
He  was  close  behind,  but  I  doubted  whether  he 
had  heard  it.     When  we  came  out,  he  quoted  it  to 

her 

The  Trinity  ball  was  last  night.  It  is  not  often 
that  a  conversation  with  another  man  is  the  most 
vivid  impression  one  carries  away  from  a  ball.  It 
was  so,  however,  with  me  last  night.  Did  I  ever 
mention  in  my  letters  Hallam  Tennyson,  the  poet's 

son  ?     He is  morally  and  socially  cultivated,  and 

has  that  instinct  of  what  will  give  the  right  sort  of 
pleasure,  which  generally  comes  only  of  kindliness 
acting  on  a  large  social  experience  :  in  a  very  young 
man  it  has  a  peculiar  charm  because  it  is  a  sure  sign 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  157 

of  unusual  selflessness.  For  instance  he  gave  me 
some  kind  messages  from  his  father  in  a  way  which 
showed  that  he  was  not  ashamed  to  own  that  he 
thought  them  an  honour  :  the  average  youth  would 
have  thought  that  this  would  be  bumptious, — and 
would  thereby  have  made  a  double  mistake, — the 
mistake  of  affecting  to  underrate  his  own  father,  and 
the  mistake  of  seeming  to  doubt  the  other  person's 
worth.  It  amused  me  to  see  that  he  had  an  almost 
passionate  admiration  for  Miss  Thackeray — '  Annie' 
as  he  called  her.  She  is  coming  here,  I  find,  this 
week,  and  I  have  just  been  asked  to  a  party  at 
Trinity  Lodge,  which  I  feel  sure  means  that  Alfred 
Tennyson  and  Miss  Thackeray  are  going  to  be 
staying  there ;  but  1  cannot  go,  as  the  Adamses  have 
a  party  on  the  same  day  for  the  Bishop  of  Meath 
and  Mrs  Butcher " 

"Trinity  College, 
Cambridge, 

June  10th,  1873. 

As  one  passes,  with  years  or  months,  out  of 

the  phase  in  which  mere  acquaintanceship  pleases  by 
glitter  or  even  by  change, — and  the  'even'  means  a 
stage  which  no  one  can  quite  dissociate  from  self- 
contempt — one  comes  to  long  so  for  an  inner  life  of 
friendship.  I  had  such  a  life  as  a  boy,  when  the 
friends  whose  minds  had  come  to  a  glow  at  the  same 
time  with  my  own  were  here  :  then  they  went  away, 
and  the  world  has  spoiled  two  or  three  of  them,  and 
merged  more,  and  death  has  taken  away  some  of 


158  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

them  ;  but  now,  suddenly,  and  as  if  by  a  gift  from 
God  who  sees  in  secret,  just  in  this  last  year  a 
second  spring  of  friendship  seems  to  have  come. 
I  cannot  understand  it  yet — within  the  last  three 
months,  just  when  I  seemed  most  desolate  and  felt 
most  certain  that  I  must  fight  through  life  alone,  a 

group  of  noble  friends  has  sprung  up  about  me 

I  have  felt  sometimes  as  if  this  meant  somehow  the 
nearness  of  death  :  I  cannot  in  the  least  tell  why. 
Sometimes  it  is  the  real,  if  not  the  conventional, 
sincerity  to  brave  the  conventional  absurd.  Do  you 
expect  to  hear  of  balls  and  concerts  ?  What  is  the 
use  of  writing  about  them  when  you  know  that  they 
meant  nothing  for  me  except  as  possible  incidents 
which   I  should  probably  not  use  1     One  writes  as 

one  feels  moved — at  least  one  ought  so  to  write 

In  every  type  the  strong  elemental  currents  surge  at 
times  fixed  by  the  influence  which  rules  that  life,  as 
the  moon  rules  the  tides  :  and  it  is  then  that  the  life 
is  most  itself, — asserts  itself  most  from  under  the 
death  called  habit.  Ever  since  I  can  remember 
anything,  I  had  two  desires, — for  power,  and  for 
love.  The  first,  during  my  youth,  absolutely  sup- 
planted the  second.  The  question  which  puzzles  me 
now — not  so  much  for  me,  rather  as  an  abstract 
question — concerns  the  first ;  (the  second  I  think 
now  absolutely  insoluble  for  any  individual,  it  depends 
on  such  utterly  unfathomable  secrets) — am  /,  that  is, 
is  the  precise  compound  of  strength  and  weakness 

for  which  I  stand,  ever  to  have  power  .^^ Is  this 

inward   assurance   a   trustworthy   pledge   of  future 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  159 

power,  or  is  It  merely  a  self-delusion  ?  By  the  *  in- 
ward assurance '  I  mean  something  quite  definite, 
though  the  phrase  sounds  rather  vaguely  majestic. 
I  mean  that  I  sometimes  see  a  face  :  if  I  could  draw, 
I  could  draw  the  face.  We  know  so  little  the  limit 
between  the  so-called  real  and  the  so-called  unreal, 
that  no  one  has  a  clear  right  to  declare  any  such 
thing  an  hallucination.  The  truth  would  probably 
be  that,  where  such  an  impression  is  exceptionally 
clear,  there  is  an  anthropomoi^phic  imagination — 
allied  to  the  old  Greek  imagination — of  exceptional 
vividness.  This  is  probably  the  explanation  in  my 
case.  I  am  aware  of  a  kinship,  which  can  hardly  be 
fancied  merely,  between  my  mind  and  that  particular 
type  of  the  Aryan  mind.      But  then  does  this  vision, 

however  explained,  mean  future  power? 

I  dined  a  few  days  ago  with  Hallam  Tennyson 
to  meet  a  small  party  of  his  friends  :  it  was  very 
delightful,  but  it  would  take  a  ream,  not  a  letter,  to 
describe.     I  wished  you  had  been  there." 

"KiLLiNEY,  Co.  Dublin, 
June  2^th,  1873. 

My  letter  of  June  loth  carried  the  history  of  the 
May  term  to  its  natural  conclusion.  After  the  loth, 
however,  about  a  week  of  work  still  remained  for  the 
College  examiners,  of  whom  this  year  it  was  my  turn 
to  be  chief.  The  Head  Lecturer,  as  this  official  is 
called,  has  to  organise  and  conduct  the  examina- 
tion,— and,   as  the  crown  of  his  genial  labours,  to 


i6o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

entertain  his  colleagues  at  dinner.  The  next  day,  if 
he  is  alive,  he  is  generally  not  sorry  to  retire  into 
what  some  book  of  my  youth,  talking  of  Cincinnatus, 
elegantly  called  'the  ease  of  a  private  station.'  This 
time,  however,  I  stayed  on  for  two  days,  as  some 
friends  of  my  mother's  had  come  (rather  late,  indeed), 
to  see  Cambridge,  and  it  would  have  been  base  to 
have  shirked  lionising  them.    Fortunately  they  cared 

for  pictures 

Then,  on  June  i8th,  I  went  to  the  'apostolic' 
dinner  at  Richmond, — the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Cambridge  Society  which  you  will  associate  with 
'  Realmah.'  Mr  Fitzjames  Stephen  was  president 
this  year — (perhaps  you  do  not  know  his  name  :  he 
is  our  late  Finance  Minister  at  Calcutta, — a  lawyer 

and  writer  of  amazing    industry  and   vigour) 

Sir  Arthur  Helps  was  not  there  this  time, — but 
Tom  Taylor,  the  dramatist,  was, — and  Spedding, 
Bacon's  biographer, — and  Lord  Houghton,  as  amus- 
ing as  ever,  and  more  decorous  than  usual.  (All  my 
life  I  have  shunned  those  insidious  sentences,  which 
look  so  easy  at  starting,  with  'as'  and  'than.'  Pardon 
a  'first  fault.')  Now  here  I  am  at  the  seaside  with 
my  own  people, — that  is,  my  father  and  mother  and 
a  brother  who  has  just  taken  his  degree  at  Oxford — 
Winchester  prejudices  having  estranged  the  unhappy 
youth  from  his  elder  (and  wiser)  brother's  seat  of 
learning.  This  is  a  very  pretty  country,  on  the 
borders  between  the  counties  of  Dublin  and  Wick- 
low, —  well-wooded,  and  yet  a  true  sea-place, — a 
combination  not  very  frequent  in  our  islands 


1^73]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  i6i 

My  mother  has  that  wonderful  gift  of  sunshine  in 
her  nature — the  gift  of  perpetual  youth, — only  that, 
unlike  Tithonus,  the  possessor  never  asks  the  gods 
to  take  it  back ;  perhaps  because,  unlike  his  perpetual 
youth,  it  is  a  source  of  so  much  happiness  to  all 
around  that  the   owner   knows    there  would    be    a 

general  protest  against  the  gods  resuming  it 

There  is  no  such  rest,  when  the  nerves  are  over- 
wrought for  a  time,  as  the  society  of  a  woman  to 
whom  it  is  possible  to  speak  with  the  certainty  of 
being  understood.  Men  are  sensitive  to  this  influence 
in  very  various  degrees  ;  I  feel  it  in  a  very  high 
degree.  A  few  days  of  quiet  here  with  my  mother 
form,  for  me,  the  sovereign  restorative — reminding 
me  always  of  that  phrase  in  the  Second  Part  of 
Faust  about  the  necessarily  and  distinctively  feminine 
element  in  all  that  is  spiritually  highest — the  untrans- 

lateable  'ewig  weibliche.' I  don't  think  Bayard 

Taylors  'woman-soul'  comes  anywhere  near  it:  but 
who  could  render  it  ? 

One  advantage  In  being  just  now  on  this  side  of 
St  George's  Channel  is  that  the  Shah  is  on  the  other. 
Never  was  lion  so  ruthlessly  hunted  as  the  Shah : 
whom  the  Daily  Telegraph,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
hailed  as  '  the  successor  of  Darius ' — provoking  the 
inevitable  protest  of  the  Historically-minded  Man, 
Mr  Freeman.  England  happened  to  be  mentioned 
in  conversation  to  his  Persian  Majesty  when  he 
was  at  Berlin, — and  he  Is  said  to  have  exclaimed, 
with  really  superb  diplomatic  tact,  if  the  story  is 
true — '  Angleterre  !   Ah  !   nuages — nuages  ! '     As    if 

J.   M.  II 


1 62  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

clouds  were  the  one  idea  he  connected  with  these 

islands 

Do  you  remember,  in  Longfellow's  '  Hyperion/ 
the  translation 

'  Many  a  year  is  in  its  grave,'  etc. 

of  Uhland's  little  poem  ? An  interesting  (negative) 

fact  about  the  authorship  of  this  translation  has  just 
come  to  me  through  the  kindness  of  a  stranger.  An 
American  gentleman,  Mr  Hayes,  a  Professor  of 
Greek  in  the  States,  though  he  does  not  tell  me 
where,  wrote  to  me  a  few  days  ago  from  London 
(he  happened  to  have  been  reading  a  volume  of 
translations  of  mine)  to  tell  me  that  this  version  is 
not  Longfellow's  own,  but  appeared  first  in  a  number 
of  the  British  Quarterly  for  1832.  The  notion  that 
the  English  lines  were  Longfellow's  own  had  been 
fixed  in  my  mind  by  a  thing  trifling  enough,  but  just 
of  that  kind  from  which  one  often  draws  a  half- 
unconscious  inference.  In  1863  I  met  Thackeray 
in  London,  and  with  his  usual  good-nature  to  old 
Carthusians  he  asked  me  what  I  had  been  doing 
lately — especially,  what  I  had  been  translating?  I 
mentioned  these  lines,  and  I  remember  his  saying 
that  he  thought  no  original  work  of  Longfellow's 
was  better " 

*'  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge, 

July  m,  1873. 

You  have  perhaps  seen  in  the  newspapers 

an  account  of  the  anti-confessional  meeting  at  Exeter 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  163 

Hall.  Nearly  five  hundred  Anglican  clergymen  had 
asked  the  Bishops  to  appoint  confessors  (meaning 
auricular  confession)  throughout  England.  They 
(the  Bishops)  had  said,  in  their  episcopal  tongue, 
that  in  fact  they  could  not  think  of  it.  Then  came 
the  meeting  at  Exeter  Hall.  Lord  Shaftesbury 
presided.  All  the  persons  present  are  reported  as 
having  used  the  language  of  confident  Protestantism; 
that  was  of  course  ;  but,  for  educated  people,  the 
most  grotesque  incident  was  that  the  meeting  actually 
mistook  a  quotation  (in  English)  from  Michelet's 
book  published  about  30  years  ago  in  France, — 
*  Priests,  Women,  and  Families' — for  a  pamphlet  by  a 
contemporary  English  divine,  and  exclaimed  *  Who's 
his  Bishop  ? ' — Auricular  Confession  is  an  absurd, 
and  evidently  a  dangerous  superstition  ;  so,  for  that 
matter,  is  all  sacerdotalism ;  and  who, — knowing  that 
the  spiritual  good  of  Catholicism, — its  appeal  to  the 
devotional  sentiment, — can  be  shared  by  aliens  in 
their  sorest  need, — would  voluntarily  put  his  reason 
under  the  yoke  ?  " 

^^ July  20th,   1873. 

When  you  were  at  Oxford,  you  heard  of,  if 

you  did  not  meet,  Mr  and  Mrs  Mark  Pattison I 

am  staying  with  them  here,  but  leave  to-morrow. 
Mr  Pattison  and  I  are  members  of  a  subcommittee 
of  four  persons  appointed  to  discuss  certain  proposals 
for  the  organisation  of  academical  study  ;  and  he 
invited  me  to  come  here  for  a  conference  on  that 
subject.     He  and  his  wife  are  both  very  interesting 


164  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

and  very  striking.  His  history  is  a  singular,  and,  I 
think,  a  touching  one.  Possessed  of  great  subtlety 
and  equal  honesty  of  intellect,  he  made  theology  his 
study.  He  found  gradually  that  there  was  no  rest 
for  him  there — nothing,  no  one  spot  of  the  whole 
morass,  on  which  he  could  plant  a  firm  foot ;  he 
sickened  of  it,  except  as  a  mere  discipline ;  he  fell 
back  on  erudition ;  and  now  he  is  a  variously  learned 
man,  saddened  by  a  profound  intellectual  disappoint- 
ment which  has  sharpened  and  refined  faculties  always 
most  delicate  and  keen — most  of  all,  perhaps,  on  the 

side  of  satire.      His  wife  is  difficult  to  describe 

She  is  very  clever :  she  has  tenderness ;  great  courage  ; 
and  an  exquisite  sense  of  humour.  In  manner,  she 
is  inclined  to  be  brusque,  though,  by  that  instinct 
which  women  of  a  fine  strain  never  lose  under  any 
vagary,  she  never  fails  in  perfect  taste;  she  is  joyous, 
and  affects  a  certain  specially  Oxford  type  of  feminine 
fastness,  which  it  would  take  too  long  to  define, 
except  by  saying  that  it  is  based  upon  the  jocose 
ease  of  cultivated  youths  ; — she  talks  of  art  and 
books  and  philosophies, — yet  rather  about  them  than 
of  them  ; — but  to  any  one  who  can  clearly  see  her 

whole  nature  in  one  view,  she  is  most  captivating 

She  knows  the  gloom  that  rests  on  her  husband,  and 
she  has  resolved  to  be  the  sunshine  of  his  life  ;  she 
knows,  too,  that  a  man  of  such  large  and  quick  per- 
ception  can    be   amused    only   by  what  is  socially 

original Hullah,  the  musician,  is  staying  here; 

he  is  a  very  charming  man,  and  his  wife  is  nice. 
This  morning  he  and  I  went  to  the  Christ  Church 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  165 

service — which  was  hard  and  poor — and  in  the  after- 
noon to  Magdalen — which  was  good  musically.  The 
voluntary  at  the  end  was  the  'Dead  March  in  Saul' 
Strange  and  sudden  news  had  come  :  yesterday 
(July  19th)  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  (Wilberforce, 
lately  Bishop  of  Oxford)  was  riding  in  London  with 
Lord  Granville,  when  he  was  thrown  from  his  horse 
and  killed.  It  is  a  tragic  end  to  a  life  which  has 
seen  no  adversity.  All  had  been  success — save,  in 
one  instance,  the  frustration  of  a  father's  hopes  for 
a  son. 

We  have  just  been  sitting  in  the  open  air  in  the 
court,  under  the  starlight,  and  Mrs  Pattison  and  I 
have  been  smoking  her  particular  cigarettes — made 
for  her  in  Paris  by  somebody.  She  is  a  connoisseur; 
and  explained  the  rather  difficult  art  of  preventing 
these  fragrant  but  fragile  pastilles  from  untwisting 
themselves.  Then  the  Rector,  Mr  Hullah,  and  I 
made  a  tour  of  starlit  Oxford — very  beautiful  in  this 
dim,  soft,  transparent  light — when  one  can  think  of 
Oxford  as  indeed  *  whispering  from  her  towers  the 
last  spells  of  the  middle  age.' 

To-morrow  I  go  back  to  her  northern,  and 
sterner,  sister." 

"Trinity  College, 
Cambridge, 

November  2^th,  1873. 

This  letter  shall  be  devoted  to  telling  you  our 
Cambridge  news  of  the  last  fortnight.  We  have 
had  so  many  other  things  to  write  of  lately,  that 


1 66  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

your  Cambridge  journal  has  been  kept  for  you  less 
minutely  than  of  yore.  Call  up  the  places  and  the 
people  now,  and  be  with  us  again  in  imagination 

On  the  15th,  the  Humphrys  had  a  dinner-party — 

rather  crowded I    talked  to  Miss    Grill.      The 

possessor  of  this  somewhat  disquieting  name  joins 
the  sentiment  of  life's  most  glowing  and  gushing 
years  to  the  experience  of  a  period  considerably  more 
advanced.  Well  do  I  remember  taking  her  to  dinner 
once,  and  her  saying,  in  the  most  unprovoked  way, 
while  she  was  dining  with  apparently  good  appetite, 
— *  Mr  Jebb, — do  you  think  that  women  ever  die 
of  a  broken  heart  ? '  I  was  so  terrified  that  I  could 
think  of  no  answer  but  that  '  perhaps  other  organs 
may  have  something  to  do  with  it.' 

Mr  Tennyson  has  been  here.  He  came  up  on 
Saturday,  the  15th,  and  stayed  till  Monday.  On 
Saturday  I  met  him  at  his  son  Hallam's  rooms,  and 
sat  on  his  right  hand  at  dinner.  He  talked  very 
pleasantly  of  the  old  Trinity  days ;  and  in  the  evening 
he  read  aloud  to  us  '  Boadicea ' — '  The  Grandmother' 

— and  the  two  '  Northern  Farmers.' Mrs  Cameron, 

the  artist-photographer,  was  here  at  the  same  time ; 
and  Mr  Knowles,  the  Editor  of  the  Contemporary 

Review I  like  Hallam  Tennyson  thoroughly;  he 

has  a  beautiful  nature  ;  and,  now  that  I  know  him 
well,  I  wish  more  than  ever  to  know  his  mother. 
Every  one  says  that  she  is  perfection. 

Mr  Vernon  Harcourt  is  Solicitor  General.  I 
went  with  him  the  other  day  to  a  dinner-party  at 
Grantchester,  and  when  we  came  back  he  sat  with 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  167 

me  in  my  rooms  talking  for  a  long  time.  His 
philosophy  is  the  common  philosophy  of  the  man  of 
the  world  ;  he  is  one  of  the  able  men  who  distinctly 
pride  themselves  on  being  only  men  of  the  world, — 
rejoicing  in  the  advantage  which  their  judgment 
gives  them  over  clever  men  who  do  not  know  life, 
rather  than  ashamed  of  the  cynicism  which  prevents 
them  from  being  on  a  level  with  the  really  noble 
spirits.  Still,  Vernon  Harcourt  has  the  charm  which 
belongs  to  really  good-natured  cleverness.  His 
ambition  is  not  legal  but  political ;  and  he  has  taken 
his  present  post  from  political  motives  chiefly  if  not 
solely.  The  Ministry,  he  thinks,  will  not  last  more 
than  six  months.  He  would  not  care  to  be  Chancellor ; 
but  I  think  he  would  like  to  be  Minister  of  Justice, 
if  such  an  office  ever  came  into  existence, — the  Chan- 
cellor,  minus    his    drudgery,   and  with  more  direct 

political  power 

My  friend  Frederic  Myers  has  been  here.  He 
is  interested  in  spiritualism  at  present ;  and  for  the 
first  time  in  my  life  I  assisted  at  a  seance  during  his 

visit The  case  in  regard  to  'spiritualism'  is  a 

dilemma.  Either  it  is  deliberate  imposition  or  it  is 
some  agency  at  present  unknown.  The  'unconscious 
muscular  or  cerebral  action'  theory  may  explain 
moving  or  tilting  of  tables,  but  it  will  not  explain 
rapping.  At  present  I  incline  to  think  that  it  is 
deliberate  imposture.  But  I  have  not  evidence 
enough  for  an  induction.  One  of  the  spirits  brought 
this  'message'  to  M.  : — 'Go  to  15,  King  Street, 
Chester,  and  you  will  see  your  future  wife.     She  is 


1 68  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

Florence  Martin,  aged  22, — pretty, — the  daughter 
of  G.  R.  Martin,  lawyer.'  Now,  it  appeared  from 
the  Law  List  that  a  Mr  G.  H.  Martin,  a  solicitor, 
does  live  at  Chester, — though  where,  the  List  says 
not.  Does  not  all  this  strongly  suggest  imposture  ? 
The  spirit  of  a  dead  woman  came  to  me,  and  said 
her  name  was  Margaret  Banks.  We  had  not  known 
each  other,  said  the  spirit ;  but  she  had  seen  me 
twice, — once  in  church  at  Liverpool,  in  1865  ;  again 
at  Dover  in  1868.  Now  I  was  only  once  in  my  life 
in  church  at  Liverpool,  viz.,  in  August,  1 867  ;  and  I 
asked  the  spirit  if  it  knew  who  preached  on  that 
occasion.  (It  was  a  man  famous  in  Liverpool, — 
Dr  McNeile,  Dean  of  Ripon.)  It  did  not  know, 
and  then  it  explained  that  it  had  only  come  in  at  the 
end  of  the  service,  and  met  me  in  the  porch  ;  which 
seemed  somewhat  evasive.  Obviously  all  this,  at  all 
events,  was  imposture  pure  and  simple.  Then  it 
undertook  to  rap  out  the  initial  of  a  dead  person  of 
whom  I  was  thinking.  (I  was  thinking  of  my  sister 
Fanny,  who  died  in  childhood.)  It  gave,  first  M  ; 
then  W ;  then  it  gave  it  up.  Now,  I  shrewdly 
suspect  that  M  was  a  shot  at  Mill,  and  W  a  shot  at 
Whewell,  the  late  Master  of  this  College  ;  the  two 
dead  persons  whom  the  operator — a  stupid  man — 
thought  his  best  chances " 

^^ December  26ih,  i2>'j ^. 

Many,  many  happy  Christmases  and  New  Years. 
Consider  this  as  a  supplement  to  my  letter  of  Decem- 
ber 16,  not  as  one  of  the  regular  letters  whose  right 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  169 

to  exist  must  not  be  prejudiced  by  supernumeraries. 
Well,  on  December  17,  I  went  to  town  to  spend 
two  days  with  the  Tennysons,  and  very  delightful 
days  they  were.  I  had  long  looked  forward  to 
meeting  Mrs  Tennyson. 

She  is  tall,  slight,  with  the  traces — they  must  be 
called  so  now — of  a  sweet  serene  beauty  ;  she  is  as 
stately  as  consists  with  a  grace  which  has  nothing 
of  rigour ;  gentle,  of  perfect  courtesy  ;  with  a  sym- 
pathetic insight  which  makes  those  whom  she  admits 
to  the  friend-circle  feel  at  once  at  home  by  assuring 
them  of  being  understood.  Two  people,  indepen- 
dently of  each  other,  described  her  to  me  by  saying 
that  she  was  a  chatelaine  ;  and  the  description  is 
really  happy,  expressing,  as  it  does,  something  of 
the  sweet  queenliness  of  a  French  mistress  of  the 
manor  of  the  old  regime — helped  by  some  quaint 
felicity  in  her  dress  which  would  evaporate  under 
male  analysis.  I  had  more  than  one  conversation 
with  her,  and  felt  all  her  quiet  power.  If  I  had  to 
say  what  is  distinctive  of  her,  I  should  say, — the  gift 
of  making  one  feel  that  goodness,  intelligence,  and 
good  breeding  are  a  trinity  of  whom,  in  her,  one  can 
worship  the  unity. 

There  was  a  dinner-party  on  Wednesday, — Miss 
Thackeray,  Mr  Robert  Browning,  Professor  Tyndall, 
and — distinguishable  among  some  merely  fashion- 
able people — Mr  and  Mrs  George  Howard.  Mr 
Howard  is  a  man  of  mark.  He  is  about  thirty  :  he 
is  an  enthusiast  for  painting,  and  has  already  had 
a  picture  or  two  in  the  Academy  ;  and  he  is  heir  to 


170  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1873 

the  earldom  of  Carlisle. — At  dinner  I  sat  between 
Miss  Thackeray  and  Mr  Robert  Browning,  and 
very  pleasant  /,  at  least,  found  it.  Afterwards  there 
was  an  evening  party.  The  only  people  who  greatly 
interested  me  were  Lecky  and  Hutton.  The  latter's 
rather  odd  physiognomy  has  been  cleverly  described 
by  his  lively  enemy,  Mr  Vernon  Harcourt,  as  some- 
thing between  a  bull-dog's  and  a  priest's.  When  I 
saw  it,  I  recognised  the  ingenuity  of  the  description  : 
just  those  two  elements  are  there, — corresponding, 
moreover,  to  two  leading  mental  characteristics, — 
combativeness,  and  a  rather  feminine  subtlety.  Mrs 
Tennyson  told  me  the  next  day  that  Lecky  is  a 
wonderfully  erudite  talker ;  his  reading  has  taken 
him  into  all  kinds  of  little-trodden  paths  ;  and  he 
has  a  great  memory.  He  has  vowed,  it  is  said,  to 
write  no  more  books  : — it  is  too  much  trouble ! 

On  the  Thursday,  Hallam  and  Lionel  Tennyson 
and  I  went  to  the  Leslie  Stephens'  early — and 
thence,  with  Miss  Thackeray,  to  the  Ritchies.  With 
a  Ritchie  detachment,  we  went  to  see  Holman  Hunt's 
picture,  '  The  Shadow  of  Death.'  You  perhaps 
know  the  subject — Our  Lord,  in  a  carpenter's 
shop  at  Nazareth,  just  before  the  beginning  of  his 
ministry,  lifting  up  his  arms,  partly  in  weariness, 
partly  in  prayer :  they  reflect  the  Shadow  of  the 
Cross  on  the  background  behind  him — startling 
the  Virgin,  as  she  kneels  gazing  at  the  gifts  of  the 
Eastern  Kings,  and  dreaming  of  a  temporal  king- 
dom for  her  Son.  Through  the  open  front  of  the 
carpenter's  shed  are  seen  the  hills  of  Nazareth,  with 


1873]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  171 

a  sky  of  cloudless  brightness  above  them.  One 
thinks  of 

*  the  sinless  years 
That  breathed  beneath  the  Syrian  blue.' 

There  is  perhaps  more  of  effort  and  dramatic  elabo- 
ration in  the  work  than  belongs  to  the  supreme 
masterpieces.  But  it  is  a  great  painting,  and  a  lofty 
poem. 

That  evening,  some  of  our  party  of  the  day 
before  met  again  at  a  little  dinner  at  the  Leslie 
Stephens' — Miss  Thackeray,  Mr  Robert  Browning, 
Hallam  Tennyson,  &c.  We  were  talking  of  English 
words  that  had  no  rhymes,  and  after  instancing 
'silver,'  'month,'  'depth,'  'false'  (which  by  the  bye 
has  an  old  English  rhyme,  'halse,'  to  embrace),  Mr 
Browning  asked  for  a  rhyme  to  rhinoceros — which 
he  presently  supplied  himself,  as  follows  : — 

'  Whenever  you  see  a  rhinoceros, 

If  a  tree  be  in  sight, 

Climb  quick,  for  his  might 
Is  a  match  for  the  gods — he  would  toss  Eros  I ' 

By  the  bye,  if  you  read  the  review  of  my  trans- 
lations in  the  Fortnightly,  you  may  have  noticed 
that  Mr  Myers  disputes  my  way  of  taking  the  lines 
in  '  Abt  Vogler ' 

'  For  one  is  assured  at  first,  one    scarce  can  say  that  he 
feared,'  etc. 

Mr  Browning  volunteered  to  tell  me  that  I  had 
interpreted  the  whole  passage  exactly  as  he  had 
meant  it,  and  that  the  possibility  of  Mr  M.'s  version 


172  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [^^74 

had  never  even  occurred  to  him.  Oh  that  the  shades 
of  the  departed  could  sometimes  be  evoked  to  decide 
points  of  the  same  kind !  The  points  which  test 
an  accurate  instinct  are  generally  above  the  logical 
sphere  :  they  cannot  be  proved." 

"  KiLLARNEY, 

January  \(^th^   1874. 

It  is  just  two  years  and  four  months  since  I  was 
writing  to  you  from  this  house,  in  this  very  room — 
in  September,  1871.  How  well  I  remember  sitting 
at  the  open  window  here,  looking  out  on  the  lake 
and  the  hills,  but  seeing  only  you,  and  trying  to  call 
up  your  life  beyond  the  sea  :  then,  when  the  letter 
was  written,  I  would  not  trust  it  to  the  post-bag, 
but  carried  it  into  Killarney — and  when  it  dropped 
into  the  box,  I  felt  as  if  I  had  parted  from  the  last 
confidant  I  had,  and  was  to  be  absolutely  alone  for 
the  next  fortnight.  In  those  days  it  was  an  article 
of  faith  with  Jeannette^  and  me,  you  know,  that  you 
were  coming  back  in  the  spring  of  1872  ;  we  had 
talked  of  it  and  written  about  it  to  each  other  until 
we  thought  it  as  certain  as  that  the  nights  would 
grow  shorter  and  the  days  brighter.  If  any  one  had 
told  me  then,  as  I  sat  here,  that  in  January,  1874, 
you  would  still  be  beyond  the  sea,  how  my  heart 
would  have  sunk  !  but  if  he  could  have  added  that 
now  I  should  be  writing  with  this  brightness  on  the 
future,    how   it   would  have  bounded !     That  time 

^  Mrs  Potts,  a  cousin  of  his  wife. 


1874]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  173 

after  you  left  us  will  never  fade  out  of  my  memory ; 
it  is  a  part  of  my  life  by  itself,  full  of  secret  experi- 
ences unlike  any  that  I  have  known  :  in  fact  it  was 
the  beginning,  though  I  hardly  knew  it  clearly  then, 

of  a  new  era  in  my  character It  was  in  this  same 

room  that  I  read  the  first  letter  I  ever  had  from  you 
after  your  return  to  America.  I  remember  well 
coming  back  from  Kenmare,  20  miles  from  here, 
one  night  in  September,  just  In  time  for  dinner,  and 
finding  a  letter  addressed  to  me  in  my  father's  hand- 
writing. The  envelope  contained  a  letter  from  you. 
I  could  not  trust  myself  to  read  it  then.  But  I 
thought  that  the  people  (there  was  a  dinner-party) 
would  never  go — and  then  how  I  rushed  back  to  my 
room,  and  read  your  letter — with  exactly  the  feeling 
one  has  in  riding  when  one  is  coming  to  a  doubtful 
fence — the  nerves  strained,  but  steady.  When  I 
had  read  it  once,  I  read  it  again  :  and  then  I  could 
have  said  it  word  for  word,  by  heart.  You  could 
not  tell,  of  course,  but  the  effect  of  verbal  interpre- 
tation which  became  a  habit  with  me  in  regard  to 
your  letters — my  only  oracles — was  at  one  time, 
that  is,  until  there  was  some  hope,  a  source  of  in- 
tense anxiety.  Long  after  you  had  forgotten  what 
a  phrase  or  a  word  might  have  conveyed,  or  even 
that  they  had  been  written,  I  was  analysing  them. 
I  was  perfectly  conscious  of  the  self-delusion  involved 
in  all  this  :  but  your  utterances  were,  after  all,  the 
only  light :  the  secret  of  my  life  was  there  some- 
where :  and  it  was  natural  to  pore  over  them,  — 
though    I    was    not   intellectually   unaware    of    the 


174  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  \}^^ 

resemblance  between  myself   and    one  of  the  old- 
fashioned  commentators  on  the  Apocalypse. 

Yesterday  I  took  a  long  walk  on  a  picturesque, 
lonely  road  which  winds  along  a  hill  overlooking 
the  Lakes  and  all  their  wooded  islands,  with  the 
bold  ridge  of  hills  beyond,  serried  with  many  a 
'  gap '  hardly  less  picturesque  than  the  famous  '  Gap 
of  Dunloe' — in  sight,  too,  of  that  old,  wild  moun- 
tain-peak which  is  in  more  than  one  sense  the  crest 
of  our  old  friend  the  MacGillicuddy  of  the  Reeks. 
It  so  happens  that  this  particular  walk  is  associated 
with  two  or  three  moments  of  my  life,  and  I  wished, 
once  more,  to  make  it  conscious  of  this  last,  happy 
phase  ;  to  be  able  to  think,  when  I  was  far  away, 
that  it  knew  this  secret,  as  it  had  known  so  many 
others  of  a  rather  solitary  life...." 

Degree  Day  in  June  of  this  year  was  more  than 
usually  interesting.  The  honorary  Degrees  are 
generally  conferred  by  the  Vice-Chancellor,  but  on 
this  occasion  the  Chancellor,  the  late  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire, was  in  his  place  in  the  Senate  House.  Men  of 
distinction,  to  the  number  of  sixteen,  were  to  receive 
Degrees,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Public  Orator 
to  present  each  to  the  Chancellor,  in  a  short  Latin 
speech  expressing,  in  the  politest  words  possible, 
his  great  merits  and  special  claim  to  the  honour. 
Even  to  learn  by  heart  sixteen  Latin  speeches 
demands  no  small  effort  of  memory.  That  on  this 
occasion  the  Public  Orator  acquitted  himself  credit- 
ably is  shown  by  the  letters  he  received. 


1874]  Cambridge  Life  and  Work  175 

"Trinity  Lodge, 

June  i^th,  1874. 

Dear  Mr  Public  Orator, 

I  have  heard  a  desire  universally  expressed  by 
every  one  with  whom  I  have  conversed  this  evening,  that 
your  addresses  on  the  presentation  of  the  Honorary  Doctors 
should  be  preserved.  In  this  opinion  I  entirely  concur, 
and  I  sincerely  hope  that  you  will  kindly  consent  to 
permit  their  publication. 

I  am,  dear  Mr  Public  Orator, 
Yours  faithfully, 

Devonshire." 

From  Prof.  Freeman. 

"  Somerleaze, 

June  19//^,  1874. 

My  Dear  Jebb, 

(You  must  let  me  begin  so,  as  I  do  not  mean 
us  two  to  be  strangers.)  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  your 
speeches  are  to  be  printed — I  must  have  one  to  treasure 
up.  Everybody  says  just  the  same  of  your  wonderful 
effort  that  I  do ;  as  regards  myself,  I  can  only  say  that, 
if  I  had  been  called  on  to  dictate  my  own  praises,  I  should 
have  dictated  something  which,  save  in  the  elegance  of  the 
Latin,  would  have  been  very  like  what  you  said.  (N.B.  I 
once  could  write  Latin,  but  I  can't  now,  save  Saturnian 
rimes  now  and  then.)  I  hope  everybody  else  was  as  well 
pleased.  Scott^  thought  his  very  fine,  only  he  did  not 
understand  it. 

^  Sir  Gilbert  Scott. 


176  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1874 

We  called  on  the  great  folks  at  Trinity  Lodge  before 
we  left,  and  they  were  so  mild  that  I  did  not  remind  the 
Master  of  his  error  in  forgetting  that,  besides  the  Trinity 
which  nourished  Thirlwall  there  is  also  a  Trinity  which 
nourished  Stubbs.  But  come  and  be  my  guest  in  hall 
next  Trinity  Monday  and  you  shall  carry  back  a  message. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Edward  Freeman." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

MARRIAGE.     ELECTION   TO   GLASGOW   CHAIR.     IN- 
AUGURAL   ADDRESS.      LETTERS    BY    REV.     DR 
DENNEY,  AND  MR   R.   P.   G.   WILLIAMSON,   M.A. 
VISIT   TO   ITALY   AND   GREECE.     ILLNESS. 
1874— 1878. 

In  July  his  correspondent  was  again  in  England, 
and  shortly  after  her  arrival  they  became  engaged  to 
be  married.  A  few  weeks  later,  on  the  1 8th  of  August, 
1874,  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb  was  married  by 
special  licence  in  St  Mary's  Church,  Ellesmere\  to 
Caroline  Lane,  youngest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John 
Reynolds,  D.  D.,  of  Philadelphia,  and  widow  of  General 
Adam  J.  Slemmer,  Lieut.  Col.  4th  U.S.  Infantry.  Dr 
Reynolds  had  been  ordained  in  England  and  had, 
on  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  gone  to  America,  where 
he  became  rector  of  St  John's  Church,  Evansburg, 
Pennsylvania.  He  married  in  1832  Eleanor  Evans, 
the  youngest  daughter  of  Owens  Evans,  Esq.,  a 
large  landowner  in  Montgomery  County,  and  a  man 
of  unusual  ability  and  force  of  character.  ''  Squire  " 
Evans  owned  jointly  with  his  cousin  Oliver  Evans 

^  The  marriage  took  place  from  the  Lyth,  Mr  George  Jebb's 
house  in  Shropshire,  where  Mr  and  Mrs  Arthur  Jebb  were  living. 

J.  M.  12 


178  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1874 

(the  well-known  inventor)  the  first  steam-mill  built 
in  America — at  Pittsburg,  Penn.  Moved  by  patriotism 
he  also  built  a  factory  in  his  village  of  Evansburg 
for  the  manufacture  of  muskets,  when  the  war  with 
Great  Britain  began  in  181 2.  He  married  his  first 
cousin  Eleanor  Lane. 

To  Mrs  Arthur  Jebb. 

"  KiLLARNEY, 

August  28M,  1874. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  having  ordered  the 
cake^  for  Trinity  :  I  have  no  doubt  it  will  deserve 
the  epithet  of  the  wizard  stream  on  whose  banks  it 
has  been  made  : — 

*  The  Dee  by  Britons  long-y-gone 

Cleped  the  Divine,  that  doth  by  Chester  tend.' 

Well — we  have  been  going  through  a  series  of 
festivities — Headley's,  Killarney  House,  5  o'clock 
tea  at  Beaufort,  dinner  party  at  Danesfort,  luncheon 
ditto.  To-night  there  is  a  dance  at  Southhill  and 
on  Monday  we  are  going  to  the  Upper  Lake  with 

Dick    Herbert We    go    to    Desmond — as    at 

present  arranged — on  Wednesday.  C.  is  bearing 
the  strain  upon  her  social  energies  wonderfully. 
Just  now  she  is  playing  piquet  with  Uncle  Sam " 

Early  in  October  Jebb  and  his  wife,  after  a  few 
weeks  abroad,  returned  to  Cambridge.  We  had 
taken  a  furnished  house,  Petersfield,  for  six  months, 

^  When  a  Fellow  of  Trinity  married  it  was  the  custom  for  him 
to  send  a  cake  to  the  Combination  Room. 


1875]  Marriage  lyg 

and  for  a  more  permanent  home  were  thought  fortu- 
nate in  being  able  to  secure  No.  3,  St  Peter's  Terrace. 
Houses  in  good  position  were  by  no  means  easy  to 
find  in  those  days,  when  there  were  no  married 
Fellows  to  need  them. 

Hardly  had  we  swept  and  garnished  the  St 
Peter's  Terrace  house,  collected  our  furniture  in  it, 
and  settled  down  comfortably,  when  a  startling  pro- 
position came  from  Glasgow.  Would  Mr  J  ebb 
stand  for  the  Greek  Chair  in  Glasgow  University 
which  Dr  Lushington  was  about  to  resign  ?  if  he 
decided  to  stand,  his  election  was  practically  certain. 
The  decision  was  difficult.  Work  in  Glasgow  would 
no  doubt  be  heavy  during  the  session  ;  but  then 
there  was  the  glorious  six  months'  vacation.  And 
the  work  in  Cambridge  was  by  no  means  light,  when 
he  added  to  it  that  of  examiner  for  London  Uni- 
versity, and  of  leader-writer  in  the  Times, — the 
latter  work  undertaken  on  his  resigning  the  Trinity 
Tutorship.  On  the  other  hand,  Cambridge  had 
been  his  home  for  seventeen  years.  He  loved  every 
stone  in  Trinity  ;  the  Senate  House  spoke  to  him 
as  he  passed  of  contests  waged  and  victories  won  ; 
almost  every  face  he  saw  was  familiar,  and  friends 
met  him  at  every  turn.  No  wonder  the  decision 
was  long  in  coming.  It  was  not  till  the  8th  of  June 
that  he  announced  his  intention  to  stand  for  the 
Scotch  Chair.  Even  then  he  did  not  burn  his  ships. 
His  Alma  Mater  was  very  kind :  she  gave  him  a 
year's  leave  of  absence,  permitting  him  to  retain  his 
offices;  so  that  if  the  work  and  climate  in  the  North 

12 — 2 


i8o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1875 

proved  too  severe,  he  could  come  back  happily  to  her 
arms.  What  weighed  the  scale  down  for  Glasgow 
was  that  splendid  annual  six  months'  freedom  from 
all  official  duties.  It  seemed  to  him  the  best  chance  he 
could  ever  have  of  doing  good  work  in  scholarship. 

The  election  was  on  the  14th  of  July,  and  on  the 
afternoon  of  that  day  came  a  telegram  from  Sir 
William  Thomson  (now  Lord  Kelvin) : — ''  After 
carefully  considering  testimonials  the  University 
Court  has  unanimously  elected  you  to  the  Greek 
Chair." 

To  Miss  Horsley. 

"y«/y  20th,  1875. 

I  am  very  much  pleased  at  the  manner  of  my 
election  ;  it  was  not  only  unanimous  but  very 
cordial,  quite  belying  the  old  story  that  Scotchmen 
welcome  none  but  Scotchmen  to  their  University 
Chairs,  and  assuring  me  that  I  shall  be  among 
friends.  The  session  is  from  November  ist  to 
April  30th :  but  the  work  of  the  last  month  is  com- 
paratively light.  Ten  days'  holiday  at  Christmas  ; 
four  days  at  the  end  of  January,  and  divers  stray 
holidays  ;  and  then  the  splendid  six  months. 

Now  for  present  plans.  To-day  I  meet  C.  at 
Bletchley  and  take  her  to  Liverpool.  To-morrow 
she  sails  for  Philadelphia  where  she  will  be  met  on 
landing  by  her  own  people.  I  am  tied  by  London 
University  till  August  nth.  Then  I  am  going  to 
stay  with  my  Glasgow  predecessor  Dr  Lushington 
in  Kent  for  two  or  three  days.  Then,  August  i6th, 
I  think  I  shall  come  to  Killiney.     I  must  have  clear 


1875]  At  Glasgow  181 

seven  weeks  to  finish  my  book  (Attic  Orators). 
C.  will  be  at  Queenstown  about  September  20th. 
Early  in  October  we  must  go  to  Glasgow  to  see 
about  getting  the  house  ready.  Meanwhile  I  am 
going  there  next  week  to  be  inducted." 

The  fates  were  kind  :  the  ship  made  her  voyage 
safely  and  we  were  together  again  in  England — 
though  not  quite  so  early  as  the  20th  of  September. 
It  was  hard  to  leave  my  mother  on  the  other  side, 
and  we  arranged  that  I  should  remain  with  her 
for  another  fortnight :  we  could  go  to  Ireland  at 
Christmas. 

The  first  week  in  October  found  us  In  Glasgow, 
— with  what  work  before  us !  The  new  Professor 
must  get  his  books  on  their  shelves  and  write  his 
opening  address  to  be  delivered  on  the  5th  of 
November  :  the  new  Professorin  must  bestir  herself 
to  make  a  home  with  all  speed  in  No.  5,  the  College, 
the  official  residence  of  the  Professor  of  Greek. 
We  meant  to  keep  our  house  in  Cambridge,  as  we 
could  not  be  homeless  for  six  months,  and  no  one  at 
Glasgow  remains  in  the  College  after  the  session 
has  ended :  so  In  addition  to  wall-papers,  gas 
brackets,  and  fire  grates,  new  furniture  had  to  be 
collected.  We  were  very  happy  In  the  novelty  of 
everything.  We  liked  the  big  rooms  at  No.  5,  and 
we  liked  the  view  across  the  valley  towards  the 
setting  sun.  We  were  very  busy,  but  It  was  all 
great  fun.  We  were  young  and  work  troubled 
neither  of  us.     He  was  often  called  away  from  his 


1 82  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [^^875 

study  to  take  a  run  across  the  Park  to  the  place  of 
shops.  Ideas  concerning  carpets  and  wall-papers 
he  had  none,  but  he  could  listen  and  sympathise, 
and  he  could — and  always  did — throw  his  influence 
on  the  side  of  the  pretty  thing  instead  of  the  cheap 
one.  What  money  we  spent  and  how  little  we  cared 
in  those  blithe  days  !  There  is  something  in  the  big 
town  with  the  two  rivers  running  through  it  and  its 
fine  air,  fresh  from  the  sea — also  the  look  it  has 
of  great  businesses  that  reach  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth — that  exhilarates.  We  had  our  part 
of  it  all  to  ourselves  for  a  happy  fortnight  until  the 
College  people  began  to  come  back,  by  which  time 
the  address  was  finished  and  the  house  made  habit- 
able. We  felt  that  both  were  our  joint  work,  so 
interested  had  each  been  in  what  the  other  was 
doing. 

And  now  we  were  ready  for  the  next  step. 
Soon  the  College  Court  became  filled  with  life. 
Black  gowns  and  red  flitted  across  its  spaces  ;  groups 
of  youths  collected  and  scattered,  and  collected  again  ; 
everywhere  were  heard  greetings  and  welcomings. 
Students  crowded  into  the  class-rooms  to  pay  their 
fees,  to  enroll  their  names  and  get  their  tickets.  This 
paying  of  fees  direct  from  hand  to  hand  was  so 
different  from  the  Cambridge  way  of  delicately  inti- 
mating that  your  honorarium  had  been  credited  to 
your  account  in  the  bank,  that  as  a  new  experience 
it  became  interesting.  He  could  not  quite  take  the 
fees — his  helpful  assistant  Mr  Murdoch  undertook 
to  receive  them  while  the  Professor  wrote  out  the 


1875]  Inaugural  Address  183 

class  tickets  ;  but  he  could  bring  back  the  tin  box 
under  his  gown  when  it  was  full  and  deposit  it 
at  his  wife's  feet  with  the  air  of  making  her  a 
present.  The  present  she  liked  best  was  her  share 
in  the  work.  She  was  appointed  chief  clerk,  whose 
business  it  was  to  straighten  out  the  notes  in  neat 
parcels,  to  make  the  gold  into  small  rouleaux,  and  to 
count  the  silver — comparing  the  total  with  the  lists. 
Nobody  knows  till  he  tries  it  how  hard  it  is  not  to 
make  mistakes  in  counting  coin.  It  took  the  expe- 
rience of  several  sessions  before  this  particular  clerk 
could  present  her  packages  to  the  bank  with  the 
certainty  that  their  tally  and  hers  would  agree. 

His  inaugural  address  was  given  on  the  5th  of 
November.  That  Greek  still  held  its  own  was  shown 
by  the  applause  given  to  the  following  passage : — 
"What  was  the  position  of  classical  studies  in  i860, 
the  year  roughly  speaking  when  the  old  supremacy 
of  Classics  and  Mathematics  as  the  subjects  of  higher 
education  began  to  be  disputed,  and  what  is  the 
position  they  hold  in  1875?  The  tone  adopted 
towards  these  studies  at  the  earlier  date  is  perhaps 
not  inaptly  symbolised  by  a  well-known  passage  in 
the  great  lyric  poet  of  Greece.  Jason  comes  back 
to  the  kingdom  of  his  fathers,  and  tells  the  usurper 
that  he  may  keep  the  flocks  and  herds,  but  that  he 
must  give  up  the  royal  seat.  Science  in  the  first 
eager  assertion  of  a  just  claim,  spoke  in  like  accents 
to  the  reigning  Muse: — keep  thy  treasures  but 
resign  thy  throne.  Now,  however,  if  after  an  interval 
of  years  which  has  allowed  the  public  judgment  to 


184  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1875 

ripen,  one  was  asked  to  describe  the  actual  place  of 
classical  studies  in  the  educational  opinion  of  the 
country,  I  believe  that  a  more  homely  illustration 
would  be  more  exact.  It  sometimes  happens  that 
travellers  on  the  Continent,  who  have  long  enjoyed 
the  exemptions  of  a  privileged  nationality,  find  that 
the  demand  for  passports  has  been  revived.  Com- 
pliance with  the  demand  is  easy  and  they  go  on 
their  way  in  peace.  Citizens  of  the  classical  com- 
monwealth are  now  expected  to  show  their  passports 
for  the  realm  of  Education.  These  are  required  to 
prove  that  they  have  something  to  teach  which  is 
worth  knowing. 

Let  me  state  in  a  few  words  the  grounds  on 
which  this  proof  rests.  First  of  all,  let  us  consider 
the  precise  meaning  of  the  very  natural  wish  that  a 
modern  education  should  bear  directly  on  the  things 
of  modern  life.  It  will  be  useful  to  remember  the 
distinction  between  these  terms  :  information — know- 
ledge— science — education.  Information  is  the  pro- 
cess of  shaping  what  was  shapeless  ;  it  may  be  used, 
therefore,  of  anything  which  defines  a  notion  pre- 
viously vague.  If  I  could  learn  by  heart  the  contents 
of  the  Post  Office  Directory,  that  would  undoubtedly 
be  information.  Knowledge  is  information  digested 
and  made  a  complete,  intelligible  whole.  Science  is 
knowledge  extended,  not  merely  to  the  systematic 
arrangement  of  particulars,  but  to  the  comprehension 
or  illustration  of  laws.  Education  literally  means 
not  bringing  out,  but  bringing  up.  Mental  education 
is  a  training  of  the  mind,  whatever  the  instrument 


1875]  Inaugural  Address  185 

may  be  by  which  it  is  trained.  Now  the  memory 
is  developed  earlier  than  our  other  faculties.  Every 
one  admits  that  before  information  becomes  know- 
ledge in  a  young  mind,  that  mind  must  be  in 
some  measure  educated.  The  result  of  overlooking 
this  fact  has  been  vividly  illustrated  by  a  great 
humorist.  Paul  Dombey  at  Dr  Blimber's  was  taught 
English,  Latin,  history,  tables  of  all  kinds,  and 
statistics.  But  whether  twenty  Romuluses  make  a 
Remus,  or  hie,  haec,  hoc  was  Troy  weight,  or  a  verb 
always  agrees  with  an  ancient  Briton,  or  three  times 
four  was  Taurus — these  were  open  questions  with 
him.  How  far  can  the  process  of  training  the  mind 
for  its  whole  afterwork  be  advantageously  united 
with  the  process  of  storing  the  mind  for  its  daily 
need  '^  One  kind  of  knowledge  may  be  more  useful 
than  another  for  everyday  life.  On  the  other  hand, 
one  kind  of  knowledge  may  be  a  better  educational 
instrument  than  another.  How  is  the  balance  to  be 
struck  ?  Where,  above  all,  is  the  line  to  be  drawn 
in  the  case  of  those  on  whom  the  cares  of  life  fall 
early  ?  The  value  of  any  given  kind  of  knowledge 
as  an  educational  instrument  depends  practically  on 
the  degree  in  which  it  satisfies  two  conditions  :  first, 
that  at  an  early  stage  it  should  employ  the  con- 
structive and  imaginative  faculties  of  the  learner ; 
secondly,  that  it  should  be  a  subject  in  which  the 
results  of  work  can  be  tested  with  sufficient  accuracy 
and  by  a  method  which  is  fair  to  all.  Now  it  has 
been  universally  admitted  that  at  least  one  study, 
by  which  these  conditions  are  satisfied,  is  the  study 


1 86  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1875 

of  language.  It  is  enough  to  quote  a  single  testi- 
mony— that  of  Sir  William  Hamilton.  *  The  study 
of  language/  he  says,  *  if  conducted  upon  rational 
principles  is  one  of  the  best  exercises  of  an  applied 
logic'  The  study  of  literature,  to  which  that  of 
language  is  the  key,  is  the  entering  into  the  mind  of 
men  eminent  in  thought  and  in  power  of  expression. 
That  is  why  it  is  called  humanising.  It  makes  you 
a  more  representative  human  being,  because  it  gives 
you  a  share  in  the  best  things  that  have  been 
thought  and  said  by  the  best  ones  of  our  race " 

Students  at  the  Scotch  Universities  think  little 
about  the  social  conditions  that  help  in  the  forma- 
tion of  character ;  they  come  up  to  work  hard  at  the 
studies  which  are  the  key  to  the  professions  they 
mean  to  follow.  Very  quickly  it  was  realised  that 
Professor  Jebb  meant  to  help  them  in  this  to  the 
extent  of  his  power.  There  was  no  dawdling  in  the 
Greek  Classes,  no  pleasant  chatting  in  the  vague, 
but  real  hard  work.  The  quiet  and  order  in  the 
room  were  absolute.     The  Rev.  Dr  Denney  writes  : 

"There  was  great  interest  in  the  appointment  of  Dr 
Lushington's  successor,  and  Professor  Jebb  came  to  an 
eager  and  keenly  expectant  audience.  Audience  is  really 
the  proper  word,  not  pupils  or  class,  and  there  was  a 
moment's  hesitation  as  to  whether  the  new  professor 
would  apprehend  the  situation.  But  the  hesitation  was 
only  for  a  moment.  Perhaps  Professor  Jebb  never 
thoroughly  liked  or  approved  of  it,  but  he  promptly 
made  the  best  of  it.  He  probably  did  more  than  any  one 
had    done  before  him  to  transform  his   audience  into   a 


1875]  An  Appreciation  187 

class.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  he  was  by- 
far  the  best  teacher  I  ever  knew,  and  that  he  made  his 
subject  real  and  inspiring  as  few  are  able  to  do.  The 
first  winter  he  was  in  Glasgow,  besides  reading  Herodotus 
and  Thucydides  at  8  in  the  morning,  he  lectured  on 
Sophocles,  and  further  on  in  the  Session  on  Aristophanes, 
at  2  in  the  afternoon  :  that  winter,  I  remember,  he  went 
through  the  Antigone  and  the  Birds.  He  gave  a  course 
of  lectures  also  on  Greek  Literature  which  were  open 
not  only  to  members  of  his  class  and  of  the  University 
but  to  the  public  generally.  This  course  which  extended 
to  twelve  lectures  opened  with  great  eclat.  Distinguished 
civic  personages  were  present,  as  well  as  University 
dignitaries  who  had  no  special  relation  to  Greek.  Their 
zeal,  however,  was  not  equal  to  the  demands  which  the 
Professor  made  upon  them,  and  the  audiences  soon  came 
to  consist  practically  of  the  Greek  Class.  What  im- 
pressed the  imperfectly  prepared  students  who  had  to 
do  any  work  for  Mr  Jebb  was  the  precision  and  finish 
of  all  his  work  for  them.  Most  of  us  had  no  idea  of 
what  translation  could  be — whether  from  Greek  into 
English  or  from  English  into  Greek.  His  renderings 
of  Sophocles,  which  have  since  become  known  to  all  the 
world,  came  on  us  like  a  revelation.  He  not  only  did 
the  thing,  but  created  an  ideal  for  us  by  doing  it.  At 
that  time,  I  believe,  he  lectured  every  winter  on  Sophocles 
and  Aristophanes,  and  I  never  had  the  opportunity  of 
hearing  him  read  (as  he  afterwards  did)  in  Plato  and 
Aristotle.  His  interest,  I  should  say,  was  in  the  poetry 
and  history  rather  than  in  the  speculative  thought  of 
Greece.  He  could  not  in  any  sense  fraternise  with  his 
pupils,  the  main  interests  of  most  of  them  being  too 
remote  from  his  own,  but  he  was  most  willing  to  help 
those  who  sought  his  guidance  in  his  own  field.  After 
leaving  the  University  I  assisted   him  for  some  years  in 


i88  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1875 

examination  work,  and  know  how  sincerely  he  was 
interested  in  the  progress  of  his  men.  In  spite,  however, 
of  the  sense  of  distance  which  was  never  quite  overcome — 
or  perhaps  even  because  of  it — he  gave  many  of  us  an 
idea  from  which  we  can  never  escape  of  what  a  scholar 
can  be.  His  professorship  in  Glasgow  was  a  fortunate 
episode  in  the  history  of  the  University  and  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  many  of  its  alumni  \  and  though  we 
could  not  grudge  his  return  to  Cambridge  we  felt  that 
it  would  be  hard  to  find  any  one  who  could  hope  to  fill 
his  place." 

I  have  also  been  so  fortunate  as  to  receive  from 
Mr  R.  P.  G.  Williamson,  another  old  Glasgow 
student,  some  pages  which  fill  out  the  picture. 

"  Professor  Jebb  came  to  Glasgow  with  little  knowledge 
of  the  ways  of  Scottish  students  or  the  methods  of 
teaching  in  vogue.  But  he  quickly  adapted  himself  to 
the  situation,  and  proved  a  most  brilliant  teacher. 

His  disciplinary  powers  were  of  the  highest  order: 
not  a  sound  was  heard  in  his  class-room  other  than  the 
voice  of  the  reader  or  the  subdued  applause  of  the 
students  after  one  of  his  fine  renderings.  He  was  most 
punctual  himself  and  expected  punctuality  from  his 
students.  Only  once  did  I  witness  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  a  student  to  enter  the  room  after  the  College 
bell  had  ceased  its  inharmonious  tolling.  The  daring 
youth  advanced  a  few  steps,  when  he  was  arrested  by 
the  professor's  look  of  amazement  and  indignation.  His 
exit  was  quicker  than  his  entrance. 

Regularity,  system,  and  method  were  marked  features 
of  the  professor's  conduct  of  his  classes.  Every  morning 
at  8  o'clock  the  Senior  Class  was  opened  with  the  Collect, 
'  Prevent  us,  O  Lord,  in  all  our  doings,'  followed  by  the 


1875]  An  Appreciation  189 

Lord's  prayer.  Then  came  the  formula,  varying  only 
with  the  book  that  was  being  read  and  the  particular 
student  addressed :  '  We  begin,  this  morning,  gentlemen, 
Herodotus,  Book  IX,  page  64,  section  23 :  Mr  Smith, 
bench  12,  will  you  begin,  please?'  I  wish  I  could  give 
the  cadence  of  these  words  ;  it  is  clear  enough  in  my 
own  ears,  and  every  old  student  who  reads  this  will  recall 
the  well-known  tones. 

The  words  were  spoken  most  precisely,  slowly,  and 
distinctly,  and  the  request  to  Mr  Smith  was  given  in  a 
gradually  ascending  pitch  but  in  as  gradual  a  diminuendo 
of  loudness  so  as  not  to  alarm  that  gentleman  unduly. 
Mr  Smith,  it  must  be  remembered,  did  not  expect  the 
honour,  for  Jebb  went  through  the  class  in  such  a  way 
that  no  one  knew  when  he  was  to  be  invited  to  exhibit 
his  power  of  translation  and  his  scholarship.  After  Smith 
had  got  through  his  translation  he  was  asked  some 
questions  and  then  followed  one  of  four  judgments  by 
the  professor.  If  he  had  done  first-rate  he  received  the 
encomium,  '  Thank  you,  Mr  Smith ;  very  well '  (the  last 
two  words  in  a  gentle  murmur  of  appreciation) ;  if  he 
had  done  pretty  well,  he  was  greeted  with,  'Thank  you, 
Mr  Smith '  (the  voice  still  genial) ;  if  his  performance 
was  moderate,  he  escaped  with  the  words,  '  That  will  do, 
Mr  Smith'  (the  voice  indicative  of  slight  boredom),  and 
if  he  had  muddled  through,  the  awful  sentence  came, 
as  if  from  Olympus,  '  Sit  down,  Mr  Smith.'  No  one 
who  heard  these  unvarying  judgments  and  the  delicate 
and  deliberate  shading  of  the  tones  of  the  voice  in  which 
they  were  pronounced  will  ever  forget  them. 

Professor  J  ebb's  wit  was  pungent  but  never  harsh 
or  caustic;  we  all  got  what  we  deserved  and  expected. 
He  did  not,  *as  others  use,'  repeat  his  jokes  from  year 
to  year.  A  study  of  the  note  books  of  students  of  a 
previous   year   revealed   the  stock-in-trade   of  some  pro- 


190  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1875 

fessors :  Jebb's  humour  was  always  spontaneous  and 
suitable  to  the  occasion.  Perhaps  his  most  famous  in- 
spiration of  this  kind  was  in  connection  with  a  little 
accident  that  threatened  the  fabric  of  his  class-room.  The 
class  of  Logic  and  Rhetoric  under  the  kindly  Borderer, 
John  Veitch,  had  its  home  in  a  room  directly  over  that 
of  the  Greek  class.  Veitch  used  often  to  wind  up  his 
lecture  with  a  quotation  from  a  poet — generally  Words- 
worth. On  one  occasion,  when  his  selection  for  quotation 
was  from  a  book  of  his  own  on  the  Border  Ballads,  his 
students  were  moved  to  a  patriotic  fervour  of  applause ; 
they  stamped  vehemently  across  the  room  and  all  down 
the  stairs.  Professor  Jebb,  who  hated  noise,  looked  up 
uneasily,  then  quietly  remarked  to  his  own  class  below: 
"Gentlemen,  I  fear  that  my  premises  will  not  support 
Professor  Veitch's  conclusions." 

A  very  striking  feature  of  the  professor's  teaching 
was  his  almost  merciless  repetition  of  vital  rules  and 
principles  arising  out  of  the  grammatical  structure  of 
the  text.  These  rules  were  invariably  given  with  the 
same  clear,  steady,  deliberate  enunciation  and  in  the 
same  words.  Never  was  surprise  or  annoyance  shown 
at  a  student's  forgetfulness :  with  hammer-like  precision 
the  rule  was  recited,  as  if  it  was  a  new  and  delightful 
discovery.  I  used  to  wonder  how  a  man  of  such  extra- 
ordinary ability  and  attainments  could  descend  to  the 
commonplaces  of  the  language.  I  see  now  that  he  recog- 
nised his  function  as  a  teacher  and  did  the  work  at  his 
hand  honestly  and  thoroughly !  '  When  the  subject  of 
the  Infinitive  is  the  same  as  the  subject  of  the  principal 
verb,  it  is  put  in  the  Nominative  case '  falls  as  distinctly 
on  my  ear  to-day  as  it  did  five  and  twenty  years  ago. 

In  the  Middle  Class  one  lecture  was  given  weekly 
on  Modern  Greek.  An  edition  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis 
was  used  with  the  original  Greek  on  one  page   and    the 


1875]  An  Appreciation  191 

modern  Greek  version  on  the  one  opposite.  Differences 
in  grammar  and  idiom  were  pointed  out  and  the  relation 
between  the  Ancient  and  the  Modern  tongues  explained. 
Such  treatment  of  the  subject  undoubtedly  made  the 
*  dead '  language  vital.  Composition  was  taught  by- 
means  of  printed  extracts  from  authors  like  Macaulay, 
Emerson,  Bolingbroke,  and  Ruskin.  Each  student  was 
supplied  with  a  copy  and  was  expected  to  return  a 
finished  version  within  the  week.  This  was  returned 
with  corrections  and  at  the  same  time  the  professor's 
own  printed  version  was  issued. 

The  most  enjoyable  class,  however,  was  the  Honours 
one  which  was  very  highly  appreciated  not  only  by  the 
best  students  but  by  many  of  those  who  were  but  average. 
No  doubt  the  fact  that  in  this  class  the  professor  did  all 
the  work  accounted  to  a  certain  extent  for  its  popularity. 
There  was  no  oral  examination.  One  could  consequently 
enter  this  class  with  a  mind  '  not  over-exquisite  to  cast 
the  fashion  of  uncertain  evil.'  A  general  air  of  antici- 
pation pervaded  the  room  as  the  professor  began  his 
prelection.  Part  of  the  course  consisted  of  translation 
with  critical  and  exegetical  comments,  and  part  dealt 
with  topics  associated  with  Greek  literature  and  anti- 
quities. It  was  the  translation  that  drew  some  of  us 
who  did  not  aspire  to  be  exact  scholars,  but  who  felt 
deeply  the  privilege  we  enjoyed  of  listening  to  the  voice 
of  one  who  combined  the  utmost  fidelity  to  the  original 
with  a  diction  that  was  superb.  The  published  trans- 
lations of  the  tragedies  of  Sophocles  afford  adequate 
testimony  of  his  unparalleled  power  to  those  who  were 
not  fortunate  enough  to  hear  him,  but  they  lack  the 
charm  which  the  melody  and  the  cadence  of  the  voice 
that  is  now  still  gave  them.  The  cloister-like  quietude 
of  the  room  was  often  broken  by  the  homely  clatter  of 
feet — the  way  we  young  and  raw  lads  had  of  expressing 


192  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [}^1S 

our  humble  and  sincere  appreciation.  The  spontaneity 
and  honesty  of  these  tributes  seemed  to  touch  the  reader, 
although  they  were  so  slight  compared  with  his  world- 
wide reputation.  He  gave  us  of  his  best :  a  smaller 
man  might  have  thought  us  hardly  worth  the  trouble. 

Professor  Jebb's  moral  influence  over  the  plastic  minds 
of  his  students  was  most  powerful.  His  method,  his 
thoroughness,  his  patience,  his  persistence,  his  justness, 
his  nice  sense  of  honour,  his  enthusiasm,  his  devotion 
have  left  their  mark  on  many  men,  far  apart  in  time 
and  in  place  and  in  work,  but  united  in  a  common 
bond  of  affectionate  regard  for  the  memory  of  their  old 
master." 

After  these  two  most  appreciative  letters,  it  is 
but  fair  to  state  the  other  side.  A  candid  critic 
in  giving  his  strictly  uncomplimentary  views  of  all 
the  academic  staff  at  Glasgow — he  bore  witness 
in  a  series  of  pamphlets — described  the  Greek 
Professor  as  striking  terror  into  the  hearts  of  many 
students,  the  very  spick-and-span  look  of  his  white 
cuffs  and  shining  boots,  as  he  descended  the  steps 
of  his  house  at  8  a.m.  every  morning,  tending  to 
this  effect.  His  temper  was  described  as  short, 
and  there  were  bursts  of  it  in  the  class  that  swept 
the  atmosphere  like  a  storm.  But  even  in  this 
paper  the  writer  showed  an  underlying  feeling  of 
respect  for  the  Professor  who  worked  harder  than 
his  students. 

Professor  J  ebb  seldom  attended  the  meetings  of 
the  Senate,  the  governing  body  of  the  University. 
The  sin  that  stood  first  in  his  calendar  was  waste 
of  time,  and  at  all  meetings  there  is  a  proportion 


1875]  Class  Work  193 

of  irrelevancy  and  diffuseness.  His  own  speaking 
was  so  short  and  to  the  point  that  often  when  he 
sat  down  there  was  a  surprised  pause,  no  one 
being  prepared  for  such  an  abrupt  ending,  or  quite 
ready  to  continue  the  discussion.  He  had  no 
sympathy  with  small  economies  :  ''  Surely  men  are 
not  addicted  to  excess  in  ink !  '*  he  exclaimed  im- 
patiently when  the  amount  to  be  provided  for  an 
examination  was  being  discussed.  But  a  really 
stirring  discussion  had  in  him  a  delighted  listener. 
If  he  knew  that  an  important  subject  was  coming  up 
in  the  Senate  and  that  the  fight  would  be  without 
gloves,  he  always  took  pains  to  secure  what  he  called 
a  front  seat. 

To  Miss  Horsley. 

^^  December  ^th,   1875. 

I  have  been  so  very  busy  that  it  has  been 
impossible  to  write.  I  send  you  a  copy  of  my 
address  by  this  post  for  the  Uncle.  It  has  been 
very  well  received  in  Scotland,  even  by  those  who 
do  not  believe  in  Greek  and  Latin.  The  Greek 
class  is  larger  than  it  has  been  since  Dr  Sandford's 

time So  far,  I  decidedly  like  the  students  and 

the  work The  work  here  is  very  hard  but  not 

at  all  anxious.  It  wears  the  body  more  than  the 
mind,  and  could  not  well  be  done  without  good 
health.  No  doubt  it  is  a  sort  of  slavery  during 
the  week,  but  every  Saturday  is  clear; — and  then 
it  is  only  for  six  months. 

J.  M.  13 


194  »S'e>  Richard  J  ebb  [1876 

I  get  up  at  7,  have  tea  at  7.30,  take  a  class 
from  8  to  9,  breakfast  at  9,  take  another  class 
from  10  to  II,  and  a  third  from  2  to  3.  As  a 
rule  I  have  to  work  three  or  four  more  hours  a 
day  preparing  or  looking  over  papers.  Still,  all 
this  is  plain  sailing,  no  worry  or  uncertainty  about 
it.  I  am  very  well  and  walked  about  ten  miles 
to-day  without  feeling  any  rheumatism. 

Socially  nothing  can  be  pleasanter  than  our 
position.  Everybody  has  been  most  kind.  C. 
likes  the  place  and  has  already  made  friends.'' 

He  seems  to  have  gratified  the  Junior  Class — 
usually  entrusted  to  the  Assistant  Greek  Professor 
— by  introducing  the  custom  of  taking  them  himself 
for  one  hour  a  week. 


''March  i^thy   1876. 

Dear  Sir, 

It  has  been  the  custom  for  several  years 
for  the  Junior  Greek  Class  to  hold  a  social  meeting 
towards  the  close  of  each  session  and  to  take  tea  to- 
gether. 

At  such  gatherings  the  Assistant  Greek  Professor  has 
usually  presided  ;  but  this  year,  considering  the  great 
interest  you  have  taken  in  us  since  your  appointment 
as  Professor,  at  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  class 
lately  held,  it  was  resolved  to  ask  you  to  do  us  the 
honour  of  occupying  the  chair  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Junior  Greek  Class,  in  the  Washington  Hotel,  Sauchiehall 
Street,  on  Tuesday  evening,  April  4th,  at  7  o'clock. 


1876]  Class  Work  195 

To  save  you  the  trouble  of  writing,  a  deputation  will 
wait  upon  you  to-morrow  (Tuesday)  in  your  side  room 
immediately  after  dismissal  of  the  Middle  Greek  Class. 

Believe  me,  Dear  Sir, 

Yours  with  much  respect, 

William  F.   Somerville, 
Secretary." 

By  a  curious  chance  a  description  of  this 
meeting  is  found  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Horsley 
written  by  a  friend  v^^hose  son  was  a  member  of 
the  class. 

"St  Anne's, 

April  ph. 

Dear  Miss  Horsley, 

I  cannot  refrain  from  sending  you  the  enclosed 
from  a  letter  from  my  second  boy  at  Glasgow  College,  as  I 
am  sure  it  will  give  you  pleasure.  There  is  a  reference  in 
it  to  a  stupid  melee  into  which  a  body  of  the  students  got 
with  the  police,  when  coming  home  from  the  theatre,  in 
regard  to  which  some  of  the  correspondents  in  the  news- 
papers took  part  against  the  *  Gowns.' 

*  The  conversazione  of  the  Junior  Greek  Class  was  held 
last  Tuesday  over  which  Professor  Jebb  presided.  He 
made  some  capital  remarks  about  public  opinion  of  the 
University.  He  said  the  public  judged  the  students  by 
the  rows,  etc.,  but  about  the  real  life  of  the  University  he 
thought  they  knew  very  little,  and  he  was  doing  them  (the 
public)  no  injustice  when  he  said  they  cared  very  little. 
He  then  went  on  saying  it  was  our  duty  to  do  the  utmost 

for  spreading  knowledge When  Troy  fell  the  intelli- 

13—2 


196  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1876 

gence  was  carried  by  beacon  from  hill-top  to  hill-top — wc 
must  remember  to  make  our  studies  respected — to  stand 

out  from  men  who  had   not  our  privileges He  made 

himself  very  friendly  during  the  evening.  He  had  to  go 
before  we  finished,  and  when  he  was  going  out  he  received 
a  perfect  ovation.  The  fellows  stood  up  on  their  chairs 
and  literally  yelled.  They  sang  *  For  he's  a  jolly  good 
fellow.'    He  bowed  his  acknowledgments  and  went  out " 

The  amount  of  professional  and  literary  work 
Jebb  accomplished  at  this  period  of  his  life  was 
amazing.  With  all  the  heavy  class  work,  he  still 
made  time  this  winter  to  write  occasional  articles 
for  the  TinieSy  to  correct  the  proofs  of  his  Attic 
Orators  and  to  begin  notes  for  an  Introduction  to 
Homer.  In  February,  1876,  The  Attic  Orators 
from  Antiphon  to  Isaeus  was  published.  The 
first  reviews  were  favourable,  but  these  were  soon 
followed  by  three  others,  two  of  them  of  considerable 
length,  in  which  the  line  of  criticism  was  distinctly 
hostile.  They  practically  charged  the  author  with 
excessive  adaptations  without  acknowledgment  from 
Dr  Blass's  work  on  the  same  subject.  That  opinions 
as  well  as  tastes  do  honestly  differ  Is  beyond  dispute. 
These  three  reviewers  could  see  no  merit  In  Jebb 
except  perhaps  diligence  and  a  certain  elegance. 
To  them  he  was  a  man  without  originality  or  ex- 
ceptional ability.  To  this  day,  when  they  think  of 
him  at  all,  it  is  doubtless  with  very  genuine  surprise 
at  the  place  he  managed  to  win  in  the  general 
esteem.  The  charges  of  plagiarism  and  unacknow- 
ledged obligations  made  him  very  unhappy  ;    and 


1876]  The  Attic  Orators  197 

when  he  was  hurt,  meek  submission  was  not  the 
first  idea  that  occurred  to  him.  He  could  when 
necessary  put  a  thing  aside,  but  he  never  forgot 
that  when  time  served  it  was  there  to  be  attended 
to.  In  April  he  was  kept  busy  with  examinations 
and  all  the  work  involved  in  the  closing  of  the 
Session.  Then,  on  his  return  to  Cambridge,  the 
question  had  to  be  finally  settled — whether  to  stay 
on  at  Glasgow  or  to  return  to  his  former  positions 
in  his  own  College  and  University.  The  advantages 
were  so  evenly  balanced  that  it  was  not  without 
great  hesitation  the  decision  so  important  to  himself 
was  made.  This  point  settled,  he  turned  to  the 
accusations  of  his  reviewers.  In  the  course  he 
took  he  had  the  support  of  one  or  two  judgments 
of  weight.  Dr  Lightfoot  wrote:  **As  a  rule  I 
should  say  keep  silence  ;  but  this  charge  has,  as 
you  say,  a  moral  aspect,  and  therefore  is  a  fit 
subject  for  reply."  Mr  John  Morley  wrote  to  Mr 
Sidney  Colvin  :  "It  seems  to  me  this  is  exactly  a 
case — and  such  cases  are  of  the  rarest — when  a 
reply  is  proper  and  useful." 

Encouraged  by  these  opinions,  J  ebb  permitted 
himself  to  break  silence.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet^ 
answering,  page  by  page,  the  statements  made 
against  him  ;  and  he  added  a  letter  from  Dr  Blass 
which  wholly  acquitted  him  of  using  Dr  Blass's 
book  without  acknowledgment : — **  I  have  not  found 
a    single    instance    in   which    Professor    Jebb    has 

^  In   answer   to  the  signed  review:    he  took  no  notice   of 
those  that  were  anonymous. 


198  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1876 

adopted   a   conjecture   of    mine   without   expressly 
mentioning  me\" 

Most  visitors  to  Cambridge  notice  the  fine 
statue  of  Lord  Macaulay,  by  Woolner,  which  stands 
in  the  ante-chapel  at  Trinity.  It  has  for  companions 
the  statues  of  Newton,  Bacon,  Isaac  Barrow,  and 
Dr  Whewell.  The  inscription  on  the  pedestal  of  the 
statue  was  composed  by  Jebb  in  answer  to  the 
following  letter  from  the  Master. 

"Trinity  Lodge, 

May  gth^  1876. 
My  Dear  Orator, 

While  we  have  you  here  we  should  like  to 
extract  from  you  something  by  way  of  epitaph  on 
Macaulay.  The  base  of  Dr  Whewell's  statue  is,  you  will 
see,  covered  with  epithets  more  or  less  appropriate ;  for 
these  I  am  mainly  responsible:  but  the  perusal  of 
Trevelyan's  "Memoir  and  Letters"  indisposes  me  to  attempt 
doing  the  same  by  Macaulay,  whose  very  various  accom- 
plishments would  render  it  difficult  to  keep  his  epitaph 
within  reasonable  limits. 

Yours  very  truly, 

W.  H.  Thompson." 

''October  17,   1876. 

My  Dear  Professor, 

A  thousand  thanks  for  the  copies  of  your 
inscription.     All   who   have   seen   it   and   have   given    an 

'  The  matter  practically  ended  here,  though  there  followed  a 
"Reply"  from  his  reviewer  and  a  "Rejoinder  to  the  Reply"  from 
Prof.  Jebb. 


1876]  Macaulay  Inscription  199 

opinion,  think  that  your  choice  of  topics  is  most  happy  and 
that  your  Latinity,  as  might  have  been  expected,  is  worthy 

of  the  best  Latinists One  remark  I    hear  is,  that  we 

should  Hke  his  connexion  with,  and  attachment  to,  the 
College  rather  more  sharply  accentuated.  He  really 
loved  the  College,  and  naturally  those  of  the  Fellows 
who  knew  this  and   him   greatly  valued  the  attachment 

of  such  a  man I  have  not  yet  heard  Munro's  opinion 

which  I  expect  to  have  great  difficulty  in  extracting. 

Yours  very  truly, 

W.  H.  Thompson." 


The  inscription  in  its  final  form  runs  : 

Thomae  Babington  Baroni  Macaulay 

historico  doctrina  fide  vividis  ingenii  luminibus 

praeclaro 

qui  primus  annales  ita  scripsit 

ut  vera  fictis  libentius  legerentur 

oratori  rebus  copioso  sententiis  presso 

animi  motibus  elato 

qui  cum  otii  studiis  unice  gauderet 

numquam  reipublicae  defuit 

sive  India  litteris  et  legibus  emendanda 

sive  domi  contra  licentiam  tuenda  libertas 

vocaret 

poetae  nihil  humile  spiranti 

viro  cui  omnium  admiratio  minoris  fuit  quam 

suorum  amor 

huius  collegii  olim  socio 

quod  summa  dum  vixit  pietate  coluit 

amici  maerentes  s  .  S  .  F  .  C. 


200  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1877 

On  his  last  visit  to  Cambridge,  Mr  Gladstone, 
no  mean  judge  of  this  kind  of  writing,  pronounced 
the  inscription  to  be  *' consummate." 

We  went  abroad  on  June  i6th  for  a  delightful 
three  weeks'  holiday  in  Central  Italy.  One  of  us 
had  never  been  in  Italy,  and  to  see  it  in  summer 
was  to  the  other  a  fresh  revelation  of  its  beauty. 
Our  head  quarters  were  at  Perugia,  whence  we  made 
leisurely  visits  to  Assisi  and  other  places  in  the 
neighbourhood.  But  the  crowning  pleasure  of  our 
trip  was  a  four  days'  tour  among  the  hills.  We 
three — his  friend  Mr  G.  W.  Balfour  was  with  us — 
started  off  gaily,  early  one  morning,  with  brightly 
harnessed  horses,  jingling  with  bells  and  inspired 
by  a  most  animated  vetturino,  to  drive  fifty  miles 
to  Arezzo.  We  stopped  at  Cortona  for  the  noon's 
rest,  and  were  invited  into  the  kitchen  by  our 
Italian  host  to  choose  our  own  luncheon.  Then 
on  again  in  the  delicious  air  and  across  the  beautiful 
country  to  Arezzo,  where  we  arrived  early  enough 
to  see  some  of  its  treasures  by  daylight.  The 
next  day,  in  the  same  perfect  weather,  we  were 
driven  to  Citta  di  Castello,  crossing  the  Tiber  at 
Borgo  San  Sepolcro.  The  historic  river  on  this 
occasion  was  merely  a  shallow,  almost  stagnant 
stream  in  the  middle  of  a  very  visible  bed  of  mud. 
The  third  day's  journey  brought  us  to  Gubbio — 
a  fine  site  under  bold  hills.  We  were  so  fortunate 
as  to  be  admitted,  on  sending  in  our  cards,  to 
the  Palace  of  the  Marchese  Brancaleoni,  who  was 
the  owner  of  a  fine  Titian.     The  Marchese  himself 


1877]  Perugia  201 

was  more  interesting  than  any  of  his  possessions. 
He  was  a  little  man,  very  old,  very  tired,  very 
blase  but  with  manners  of  remarkable  distinction — 
the  finest  I  ever  saw.  It  must  have  been  rather 
dreary  to  live  up  there  among  the  mountains  alone 
with  his  three  daughters,  waiting  for  the  end. 
He  had  once  been  ambassador  to  England  and 
had  married  a  sister  (or  a  daughter)  of  John  Cam 
Hobhouse,  Byron's  lifelong  friend.  He  showed  us 
a  glass  case  full  of  mementoes  of  the  poet  which 
she  had  held  as  treasures,  and  told  us  their  histories. 
Indeed  he  was  very  kind  to  us,  and  we  felt  real 
regret  at  leaving  him,  and  were  pleased  at  his 
asking  us  to  send  him  our  photographs. 

Coming  down  the  mountain  from  Gubbio  to 
Perugia  we  were  caught  in  a  drenching  thunder- 
storm, and  then  the  Tiber  showed  its  might. 
Great  floods  of  rushing  water  filled  its  bed  from 
bank  to  bank  and  torrents  fell  down  to  join  it 
from  the  mountain  side.  It  was  a  grand  scene 
of  nature  opened  to  our  sight, 

August  was  spent  in  Cambridge  and  September 
in  Ireland,  where  notes  were  made  for  a  Primer 
of  Greek  Literature,  a  little  book  which  was  to 
cost  him  more  trouble  than  all  his  other  books 
put  together — at  least  so  he  said  when  struggling 
to  compress  so  large  a  subject  into  such  small 
limits. 

In  October  our  ships  were  burnt,  the  Fellow- 
ship and  the  Public  Oratorship  resigned ;  and  we 
went   to  Glasgow,  now  to  inhabit   there  for  many 


202  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1877 

winters.  We  were  no  longer  strangers  In  a  society 
that  grew  increasingly  enjoyable  as  its  limits 
widened.  Many  of  our  Sundays  were  passed  in 
country  houses,  amid  beautiful  scenery  new  to  us, 
and  with  agreeable  companions.  The  Scotch  pro- 
fessor soon  learns  to  value  the  labourer's  day  of 
rest,  and  though  his  few  holidays  and  Saturdays 
were  taken  up  with  composing  addresses  and 
making  notes  for  speeches,  which  were  asked 
from  him  on  every  side,  Sunday  was  always  kept 
free  from  work. 

The  College  society  was  in  itself  a  great  resource 
in  the  dark  winter  days.  Shut  in  by  the  same  gates, 
able  to  get  to  each  others'  houses  almost  dry-shod  in 
all  weathers,  occupied  with  the  same  interests, — the 
little  group  of  families  met  almost  daily,  and  lifelong 
friends  were  made  in  those  fourteen  years.  The 
two  who  were  his  most  frequent  companions  in  his 
walks  and  short  trips  into  the  country,  Professor 
Veitch  and  Professor  Nichol,  valued  friends  both, 
died  not  long  after  we  left  Glasgow.  The  short 
holidays  were  generally  devoted  to  Killiney,  though 
sometimes  only  one  of  us  could  brave  the  journey, 
which  was  rather  terrible  in  rough  weather.  It  meant 
a  night's  crossing  by  steamer  from  Greenock  to 
Belfast,  followed  by  a  long  railway  journey  from 
Belfast  to  Dublin. 

An  alternative  but  longer  route  was  by  Chester 
and  Holyhead  to  Kingstown.  The  only  time  Jebb 
went  by  it,  the  surprised  porter  at  Glasgow  failed  to 
grasp  his  intention  and  misdirected  his  luggage.     A 


1877]  Short  Holidays  203 

cry  of  distress  was  sent  to  his  wife  from  Chester  on 
a  sheet  of  paper  adorned  at  the  top  with  a  sketch 
of  a  lonely  portmanteau  leaning  up  against  a  barrow 
on  an  empty  platform. 

(No  date.) 
To  HIS  Wife. 

"  This  is  too  much.  That  footstool  of  fate,  that 
toy  of  tyranny,  that  sport  of  spiteful  destiny,  my 
PORTMANTEAU,  after  being  labelled  and  put  into  the 
van  at  Glasgow  was  not  in  it  when  the  train  got  to 
Chester  at  12.15  ^^st  night.  My  luck  is  the  greatest 
phenomenon  of  our  time.  I  instantly  routed  out  of 
his  sleep  the  lost  luggage  office  man,  who  tele- 
graphed at  once  to  Preston,  Glasgow,  and  Crewe. 
We  are  now  going  to  try  London.  I  mean  to  stay 
here  till  it  comes,  and  go  on  by  the  Irish  Mail  to- 
night if  the  portmanteau  turns  up." 

A  letter  followed  the  next  day  with  a  picture  of 
a  fat  and  happy  portmanteau  now  lying  square  on  its 
own  base. 

The  classes  were  still  larger  this  session  not- 
withstanding the  presence  of  a  Scotch  University 
Commission  in  Edinburgh  and  possible  impending 
changes.  The  organization  of  work  in  them  was  no 
slight  task. 

Professor  J  ebb  followed  a  method  of  his  own 
invention  as  exact  as  book-keeping,  by  which  he 
knew  the  number  of  each  bench,  the  seat  of  every 
student,  the  number  of  times  each  had  been  examined 


204  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1877 

and  how  often  he  was  absent.  These  books  are  a 
marvel  of  neatness  and  detail.  Without  thorough 
method  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  keep  the 
class  in  order,  and  to  make  the  students  benefit  by 
his  teaching. 

This  winter  he  was  summoned  to  give  evidence 
before  the  University  Commission  on  the  require- 
ments of  Greek  teaching  in  Glasgow  University, 
and  on  other  points.  Much  had  been  done  by  the 
Act  of  1856,  more  by  the  action  of  the  Universities 
themselves,  but  the  time  had  again  come  when, 
especially  under  the  head  of  finance,  government 
aid  was  greatly  needed.  In  all  the  Scotch  Uni- 
versities attention  was  being  given  to  the  formation 
of  workable  schemes  to  be  put  before  the  Commis- 
sion, and  the  professors'  time  was  much  taken  up 
with  meetings  and  discussions. 

That  happy  moment,  the  end  of  the  session, 
came  at  last,  and  in  May  we  were  again  in  Cam- 
bridge. We  seem  to  have  had  an  unusual  succession 
of  visitors  according  to  this  note  in  the  diary  : — 
''June  ijtk.  Our  first  day  alone  since  May  5th; 
read  my  writing  aloud  to  C.  in  the  evening." 

There  was  plenty  awaiting  him  to  do.  The  Primer 
was  crying  aloud  to  be  written  ;  an  article  on  De- 
mosthenes was  to  be  finished  for  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica ;  there  were  translations  in  Latin  and 
Greek  prose  and  verse  to  prepare  for  a  volume  which 
he  had  undertaken  conjointly  with  Dr  Jackson  and 
Mr  W.  E.  Currey,  for  use  in  schools  ; — and  only  ten 
weeks  in  which  to  do  it  all  if  he  was  to  make  his  first 


1877]  Ischl  205 

visit  to  America  this  autumn.  He  had  looked  for- 
ward eagerly  to  this  visit.  Every  evening,  after  the 
day's  work  was  read  aloud,  he  would  get  out  maps 
and  guidebooks  and  discuss  lines  of  travel ;  and  we 
would  talk  of  all  the  points  of  interest  he  wished 
especially  to  see,  measuring  out  the  time  to  be  given 
to  each.  But  alas,  there  were  many  interruptions — 
when  do  they  fail  .'* — and  the  literary  work  could  not 
be  finished  in  the  time  appointed.  Deep  was  his 
disappointment  at  having  to  decide  that  this  year  he 
could  not  go.  While  his  wife  went  to  see  her  mother, 
he  must  betake  himself  to  some  place  abroad  where 
he  could  be  quiet  and  finish  the  work  that  hung  on 
hand  so  persistently.  It  was  the  Primer  that  was 
the  delinquent — such  a  tiny  book  to  be  so  trouble- 
some. In  the  end  he  carried  it  with  him  to  Ischl, 
whither  he  went  in  company  with  Mr  Oscar  Browning, 
both  intending  to  work  steadily  in  that  invigorating 
atmosphere. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"  Ischl, 

September  20//^,   1877. 

Last  week    I  first  saw  the  arrival  of   the 

steamer  Ohio  as  having  taken  place  on  September  8th. 

Soon  now  I  shall  have  a  letter The  Lord  Provost 

of  Glasgow  wrote  to  me  at  Cambridge — how  did  he 
get  our  address  ? — asking  us  to  dine  to  meet  General 
and  Mrs  Ulysses  Grant  on  their  visit  to  Glasgow 
last  week.     He  sent  his  kind  regards  to  Mrs  J  ebb, 


2o6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1877 

and  I  said  Mrs  J  ebb  was  not  here  or  she  would  join 
etc.  You  see  I  did  not  want  to  say  the  Atlantic 
flowed  between  my  wife  and  me — to  the  Lord 
Provost.  Yesterday  I  had  a  letter  from  Trevelyan 
which  I  will  quote  : — '  To-day  for  the  first  time  I 
had  a  copy  of  the  inscription  on  Macaulay's  statue  in 
Trinity ;  and  I  cannot  help  writing  to  tell  you  how 
entirely  satisfactory  I  think  it,  and  how  much  I 
admire  the  substance.' 

Here  I  am  working  hard  at  that  terrible  Primer. 
It  is  greatly  improved  and  I  hope  will  be  out  by 
October  20th  at  latest.  On  the  30th  of  this  month 
we  talk  of  going  down  the  Danube  to  Vienna." 

The  voyage  back  from  America  was  the  worst 
his  wife  had  ever  known.  Storms  raged  incessantly, 
rising  almost  to  a  hurricane  in  mid-ocean.  The  saloon 
skylights  were  smashed  by  the  heavy  seas,  the  fires 
in  the  cook's  galley  were  extinguished  and  for  two 
days  no  food  could  be  cooked.  A  sailor  had  to  be 
bribed — at  the  risk  of  his  life  he  said — to  go  to  the 
ice-house  for  ice  with  which  to  make  lemonade.  The 
worst  of  such  a  voyage  is  that  not  only  is  it  very 
uncomfortable — it  is  also  very  long.  It  was  not  till 
the  session  had  well  begun  that  Professor  J  ebb 
could  write  in  his  diary  :  ''November  ytky  9.30  p.m. 
Drove  to  Buchanan  Street  Station.  There  met  C. 
and  brought  her  home." 

Early  in  November  we  had  the  stirring  experience 
of  an  election.  A  new  Lord  Rector  was  to  be  chosen 
to  succeed  Lord  Beaconsfield,  whose  term  had  ex- 


1878]  Diary  207 

pired.  Strict  impartiality  between  the  two  parties 
was  secured  by  the  election  of  Mr  Gladstone  amid 
much  enthusiasm  and  by  large  majorities  in  all  the 
four  nations, — bodies  into  which  the  students  are 
divided  according  to  the  place  of  their  birth. 

On  November  17th,  he  gave  the  opening  address 
to  the  Philomathic  Debating  Society  in  Edinburgh 
in  fulfilment  of  a  promise  made  six  months  before. 

After  this  we  settled  down  to  the  usual  occupa- 
tions of  the  winter,  of  which  a  week  of  his  diary  gives 
a  very  fair  sample. 

''January  22nd,  1878.  Classes.  S.  H.  Butcher 
left  for  London.  Wrote  to  Master  of  Christ's,  pro- 
posing Sophocles  to  Syndics  of  Press.  Went  with 
Caird  to  dine  with  Nichol  to  meet  Swinburne. 
He  read  his  Sapphics  and  recited  his  parodies  on 
Coventry  Patmore  and  Wordsworth. 

January  2 \th.  Classes  8 — 12.  No  Private  Class 
to-day,  Ramsay  having  dispensed  with  his.  Queen 
Street  4.15  to  Edinburgh  to  stay  with  the  Sellars. 
Principal  Shairp — Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford — 
came  to  dinner.  Blackie,  just  about  to  go  to  Egypt, 
in  evening. 

Monday y  28M.  Holiday.  Went  to  luncheon 
with  Mrs  Graham  Murray.  Her  son  (Cambridge) 
came  in.  Dinner  party  :  Lord  Deas,  Lord  Clark, 
Dean  of  Faculty,  etc. 

Tuesday,  29M.  Holiday  for  Candlemas.  Edin- 
burgh   to    Glasgow    with  C.      Letter  from  Master 


2o8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1878 

of  Christ's  about  Sophocles,  accepting  offer  of  edition 
for  Pitt  Press.  Answered.  Dined  at  Aikenhead 
House. 

January  'ipth.  Lightfoot  comes.  Classes  8,  10,  2. 
Principal  and  Mrs  Caird,  Dr  and  Mrs  M'Call 
Anderson,  Veitches  to  dinner  to  meet  Lightfoot. 

January  2)^st,  Classes  8,  10,  2,  Took  Lightfoot 
to  see  Cathedral  and  old  College.  Dr  Donald 
McLeod,  Dr  and  Mrs  Lee  to  meet  him  at  dinner. 

February  \st.  Lightfoot  left  at  1.45.  Com- 
posed and  sent  inscription  for  Medical  Medal  to 
Dr  McKendrick.  Dined  with  Sir  William  and 
Lady  Thomson. 

February  \%th.  First  day  when  candles  were 
not  needed  at  8  a.m.  when  I  came  into  the  study." 

This  witness  to  the  coming  of  brighter  days  was 
marked  invariably  in  the  diary  with  a  red  pencil. 

In  May  Jebb  made  his  first  visit  to  Greece,  a 
short  one  as  he  had  to  be  in  London  on  June  19th 
for  the  dinner  of  the  Apostles  at  Richmond,  which 
was  to  be  held  this  year  under  his  presidency. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"  Marseilles, 

May  ^th,   1878. 

I  am  so  far  on  my  way  to  Greece,  and  I 

start  in  about  five  hours  by  the  steamer  for  Syra. 
We  shall  take  about  four  days  to  get  there.  Thence 
one  day's  sailing  will  take  me  to  Athens." 

Athens  was  reached  on  the   nth  of  May,  and 


1878]  Greece  209 

after  a  fortnight  there  he  visited  Marathon,  Thebes, 
Corinth,  Sparta,  Olympia,  and  Patras,  saiHng  for 
Corfu  on  the  9th  of  June.  Three  days — all  he  could 
spare  for  the  Eternal  City — were  spent  in  Rome  on 
the  way  back.  Here  he  must  have  caught  the 
infection  of  illness,  for  scarcely  had  he  reached 
London  on  the  morning  of  the  i8th  when  he  was 
seized,  while  breakfasting  at  his  club,  with  a  shivering 
fit.  It  was  always  difficult  for  him  to  change  a  plan 
or  break  an  engagement ;  and  his  strong  will  made 
him  put  aside  physical  discomfort,  sometimes  till 
the  breaking  point  was  reached.  He  went  out  to 
Richmond  at  once,  ordered  a  room  at  the  hotel 
and  stayed  in  bed,  shivering  under  heavy  blankets, 
until  it  was  time  to  dress,  the  next  night,  for  the 
dinner.  Unable  to  touch  food,  he  presided  at  the 
long  dinner,  made  the  speech  expected  of  the 
President,  and  even  walked  in  the  gardens  with 
one  or  two  friends  till  midnight.  The  next  after- 
noon he  was  just  able  to  get  home.  "  111 — go  to 
bed  "  was  the  last  entry  in  his  diary  for  many  weeks. 
From  the  20th  of  June  to  the  7th  of  August  he  lay 
wasting  with  the  fever,  not  suffering,  sleeping  most 
of  the  time,  but  very  dangerously  ill.  There  was  no 
delirium,  but  at  one  time  great  anxiety  was  caused 
by  repeated  haemorrhages.  It  was  not  until  the 
beginning  of  August  that  his  doctors  would  permit 
themselves  to  say,  in  their  phrase,  that  he  was 
out  of  the  wood.  On  the  13th,  though  his  fingers 
could  hardly  hold  the  pen,  he  wrote  to  his  aunt, 
Miss  Horsley. 

J.  M.  14 


2IO  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1878 

"3,  St  Peter's  Terrace. 
I  just  write  a  line  to  tell  you  a  little  bit  of  news 
that  will  interest  you.  To  my  great  surprise,  I 
received  this  morning  a  letter  from  the  Greek 
Charge  d'Affaires  in  London,  informing  me  that 
the  King  of  Greece  had  conferred  on  me  the  Gold 
Cross  of  the  Saviour,  and  sending  me  the  Insignia 
therewith.  The  cross  is  very  pretty — you  shall  see  it 
when  we  meet.  Well,  I  am  getting  on  pretty  well, 
but  have  had  pain  in  the  ribs  the  last  two  nights. 
Dr  Paget  calls  it  neuralgia.  Whatever  it  is,  it  has 
made  narcotics  necessary.  This  keeps  me  back,  but 
the  doctors  say  I  must  get  away  next  Tuesday  if  I 
can — and  I  am  not  unwilling." 

The  best  sea  air  for  him  was  at  Killiney. 
We  did  get  away  on  the  20th,  but  the  journey 
was  an  anxious  one  to  his  wife.  He  disliked  to 
be  watched  too  carefully,  yet  was  so  very  weak 
that  once  his  knees  bent  and  he  almost  fell,  while 
crossing  the  railway.  After  this,  porters  were  em- 
ployed to  follow  him  wherever  he  went.  At  one 
place  the  porter  believed  he  was  appointed  to  watch 
a  lunatic.  When  his  unconscious  charge  came  back 
to  the  carriage,  the  porter  whispered  to  his  wife,  in 
an  aside,  ''He's  there,  ma'am,  quite  quiet  like." 

Once  at  Desmond  recovery  went  on  steadily. 
In  the  diary  of  September  ist  he  writes  in  a 
hand  that  no  longer  trembles,  *'  Decidedly  better. 
C.  and  father  went  to  Church.  Wrote  to  Joseph 
Mayor  proposing  paper  for  Contemporary,  Made 
notes  on  Statutes  of  German  School." 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ENGLISH  SCHOOL  AT  ATHENS.    HELLENIC  SOCIETY. 

VISIT  TO  PARIS.     CHALLENGE  BY  DR  BLACKIE. 

VISIT  TO  VENICE. 

1878— 1880. 

The  great  need  of  extended  facilities  for  the 
study  of  classical  archaeology  at  its  source  had  been 
long  felt  by  classical  students.  No  steps  had  been 
taken  for  their  provision,  however,  until  Jebb  went 
to  Athens  in  1878,  primarily  to  study  the  schools 
of  archaeology  established  there  by  other  countries. 
He  came  home  convinced  that  England  lagged  far 
behind  France  and  Germany  in  appreciation  of  the 
study  of  ancient  life  and  art  in  its  bearing  on  classical 
scholarship.  In  other  departments  of  archaeology 
the  English  were  by  no  means  negligent.  English 
historians  highly  valued  its  discoveries  within  their 
own  borders  and  largely  availed  themselves  of  its 
results ;  and  museums  of  local  antiquities  are  to  be 
found  in  almost  every  town.  Bible  students  appre- 
ciated the  assistance  given  to  their  studies  by  ex- 
plorations in  Palestine  and  found  money  and  men 
without  stint  for  the  excavations  carried  on  in  Bible 
countries.     But  in  regard  to  the  study  of  ancient 

14—2 


212  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1878 

Greek  and  Roman  life  as  revealed  in  contemporary 
monuments  there  had  been  a  singular  apathy.  J  ebb 
was  determined  to  do  his  utmost  to  remove  this 
reproach,  but  the  day  he  got  back  to  England  from 
Greece  the  illness  declared  itself  which  laid  him 
aside  for  three  months.  This  could  not  damp  his 
enthusiasm,  but  it  materially  shortened  the  time  at 
his  disposal  before  work  began  in  Glasgow.  The  only 
steps  he  could  take,  he  took.  On  September  19th 
he  wrote  a  letter  from  his  sofa  at  Desmond  to  the 
Times,  in  which  he  drew  attention  to  the  admirable 
work  done  by  France  and  Germany  on  Greek  soil ; 
to  the  perseverance  which  had  enabled  them  to 
bring  temple  after  temple  from  its  grave  at  Olympia, 
and  to  make  important  discoveries  at  Delos.  "If 
English  schools  and  Universities,"  he  continued, 
**  encourage  students  to  read  the  life  of  the  Greek 
and  Roman  world  in  its  monuments  as  well  as  in 
its  books,  there  will  be  no  lack  either  of  inclination 
or  of  trained  capacity  for  original  work  in  Greece 
and  Italy,  and  Englishmen  will  take  their  due  place 
in  a  province  of  scientific  research  which  has  long 
been  left  chiefly  to  the  scholar  on  the  Continent." 

He  followed  up  this  letter  in  the  Times  by  a 
more  detailed  article  in  the  next  number  of  the 
Contemporary  Review,  in  which  he  pointed  out  that 
classical  archaeology,  if  it  was  to  advance,  must  be 
made  a  paying  subject  at  the  Universities.  As  long 
as  philology  and  philosophy  obtained  all  the  honour 
and  all  the  rewards,  archaeology  must  go  to  the 
wall.     Let  the  University  authorities  give  it  recogni- 


1878]  Classical  Archaeology  213 

tion  and  recompense,  and  no  branch  of  scholastic 
study  would  attract  more  earnest  students  or  evoke 
greater  enthusiasm.  He  then  proceeded  to  develop 
the  scheme,  already  sketched  in  the  Times  letter, 
for  founding  an  English  School  of  Archaeology 
at  Athens  and  Rome.  His  aim  to  arouse  public 
interest  in  archaeological  research  was  successful, 
but  the  time  was  unfavourable  for  an  appeal  either 
to  government  or  to  private  munificence  for  aid. 
Government,  if  it  had  the  will,  had  not  the  money 
to  spare  for  the  institution  of  such  schools,  and 
the  depressed  condition  of  trade  and  commerce 
closed  other  sources. 

The  purse  of  charity  had  to  be  opened  very 
wide  that  winter  of  1878-79.  We  went  back  to 
Glasgow  to  find  almost  a  reign  of  terror.  The 
City  of  Glasgow  Bank  had  just  failed  and  hardly 
any  business  man  could  be  certain  that  at  some 
point  he  might  not  be  involved.  If  not  himself  a 
shareholder,  he  might  be  a  trustee  for  someone 
who  was  ;  or  people  who  owed  him  money  might 
be  ruined  and  unable  to  pay  their  debts.  Even  the 
weather  was  more  than  usually  gloomy.  Snow  and 
fog  were  its  chief  features  and  the  sun  was  never 
seen  ; — it  was  almost  as  if  a  god  had  withdrawn  his 
countenance  from  men. 

"Thou  direst  Winter  in  a  wintry  clime 
Since  wives  and  maidens  wept  for  stalwart  men 
Dashed  on  the  fatal  dream  of  Darien  !  " 

So  Professor  Nichol  wrote  in  a  sonnet  published 
in  one  of  the  newspapers. 


214  ^^^  Richard  Jebb  [1878 

The  classes  were  larger  than  ever — possibly 
because  there  was  less  occupation  to  be  found  in 
business.  *'  I  do  not  think  I  ever  found  the  work 
so  heavy  as  this  year — the  natural  result  of  my 
weakness,"  he  wrote  to  his  mother.  The  only 
writing  he  attempted  was  on  the  subject  most  in  his 
thoughts — an  article  on  Greece  for  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica  and  Progress  in  Greece  for  Macmillan  s 
Magazine, 

When  spring  came,  at  least  the  winter  was  over. 
People  began  to  take  heart  and  prepare  for  better 
times.  Jebb  had  the  agreeable  experience  of 
receiving  an  honorary  degree  from  Edinburgh 
University — the  first  of  many  such  honours. 

The  students  must  have  felt  the  struggle  he  made 
against  weakness,  in  doing  his  work  for  them  that 
session.  It  pleased  him  greatly  when  a  deputation 
asked  him  to  receive  from  his  classes  an  address 
expressing  their  admiration  and  appreciation  of  his 
labours.  The  function  was  held  in  the  Greek  Class 
Room.  Principal  Caird  took  the  chair  ;  there  were 
speeches  and  replies ;  and  through  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings a  glow  of  genuine  feeling  was  manifest. 

Meanwhile  his  scheme  for  a  British  School  at 
Athens  had  to  be  put  aside. —  Not  given  up;  he 
never  without  positive  pain  gave  up  anything  once 
taken  in  hand.  Tenacity  and  intensity  were  two  of 
the  elements  that  went  to  the  making  of  force  of 
character  in  him.  But  another  scheme  was  in  the 
field,  almost  as  likely  as  the  School  itself  to  conduce 


1879]  Hellenic  Society  215 

to  the  object  he  had  at  heart,  and  much  simpler  to 
set  going,  since  the  first  expenses  could  be  met  by 
yearly  subscriptions  from  its  members.  Also  later, 
if  successful,  it  might  be  of  assistance  to  the  School 
which  he  meant  should  come  some  day. 

The  first  suggestion  of  a  Hellenic  Society  came 
from  Mr  George  A.  Macmillan,  in  whom  enthusiasm 
for  Greek  studies  had  been  kindled  by  a  late  visit  to 
Greece.  In  consultation  with  Mr  John  Gennadius, 
Greek  Charge  d'Affaires,  the  idea  occurred  to  him  to 
start  a  society  in  Great  Britain  on  the  lines  of  the 
recently  formed  French  Association  pour  T encourage- 
ment des  Etudes  grecques.  It  was  arranged  that 
scholars  and  persons  interested  in  Greece  should  at 
once  be  communicated  with. 

Professor  J  ebb  sent  a  prompt  response. 


"  Glasgow, 

March  i^th^   1879. 


Dear  Macmillan, 


I  cordially  approve  of  the  idea  of  your 
Hellenic  Society,  and  shall  be  very  happy  to  be 
enrolled  a  member.  There  is  but  a  single  point 
in  your  clear  and  interesting  sketch  of  the  project 
on  which  I  feel  some  doubt,  and  that  is  as  to  the 
desirability  of  being  subsidized  by  the  Greek 
Government.  However  that  is  a  matter  of  detail. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  I  should  think,  that  the 
Society  would  be  valuable  in  giving  more  unity  to 


2i6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1879 

the  endeavours  and  purposes  of  scattered  workers, 
and  it  would  thus  be  doing  in  some  measure  what 
the  French  School  at  Athens,  as  well  as  the  other 
Society  you  mention,  does  in  France. 

I  shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  more  when  there 
is  anything  to  tell. 

Very  truly  yours, 

R.    C    Jebb." 

The  welcome  given  to  Mr  Macmillan's  proposal 
was  widespread,  and  put  the  success  of  the  venture 
beyond  doubt.  At  the  inaugural  meeting  held  in 
London  on  June  i6th,  when  the  chair  was  taken 
by  Mr  C.  F.  Newton  (afterwards  Sir  Charles 
Newton),  Keeper  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities 
in  the  British  Museum,  the  number  of  members 
already  amounted  to  120.  Fifty  more  were  then 
elected  and  a  committee  appointed  to  admit  other 
members  ;  and  also  to  prepare  a  scheme  of  work  to 
be  undertaken.  The  Society  was  very  soon  well 
started.  At  a  meeting  on  January  22nd,  1880, 
Bishop  Lightfoot  was  made  President,  Professor 
Jebb  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents,  and  a  general 
Council  appointed. 

The  next  step  was  to  arrange  for  the  issue  of  a 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  which  from  the  beginning 
had  been  contemplated  as  part  of  the  scheme.  Mr 
George  Macmillan,  who  was  Honorary  Secretary, 
wrote  on  this  subject  to  Professor  Jebb,  and  received 
the  following  answer. 


i88o]  Hellenic  Society  Journal  217 

''March  26th,  1880. 

Dear  Macmillan, 

I  have  been  so  much  occupied  for  the 
last  few  days  that  I  could  not  write  sooner  in 
answer  to  your  letter  regarding  the  editorship  of 
the  Hellenic  Society  Journal. 

As  to  the  general  question — how  the  difficulties 
connected  with  the  editing  had  best  be  met — I  should 
certainly  suppose  that  it  was  very  desirable,  if  not 
necessary,  to  have  a  permanent  working  editor  who 
(assisted  perhaps  by  a  secretary  or  clerk)  should 
attend  to  the  correspondence,  and  in  general  manage 
the  practical  concerns  of  the  Journal.  This  per- 
manent working  editor  need  not,  however,  be  editor 
in  chief,  in  the  sense  that  he  should  decide  on  the 
insertion  or  rejection  of  articles  or  on  points  of 
criticism.  In  this  function  he  might  be  assisted  by 
a  small  editorial  council,  representing  the  principal 
branches  of  the  subject. 

Suppose  on  the  other  hand  that  there  were  no 
such  working  editor,  but  that  a  few  members  of  the 
Society  made  themselves  responsible  for  the  editing. 
Then,  unless  one  or  more  of  them  had  a  great  deal 
of  leisure,  it  would  be  difficult  to  establish  the 
Journal  as  a  regular  periodical.  The  experience  of  the 
Journal  of  Philology  is  a  case  in  point.  There  the 
editors  are  of  the  latter  kind — receivers  of  articles, 
empowered  to  criticise  or  reject.  There  is  no  one 
whose  business  it  is  to  see  that  a  number  is  made 
up  by  a  given  date, — to  write   contributions, — and 


2i8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1880 

generally  to  keep  the  thing  alive.  And  the  conse- 
quent uncertainty  and  irregularity  in  the  appearance 
of  the  Journal  has  very  seriously  injured  its  cir- 
culation. 

The  first  question  for  us  is — -could  we  offer  any 
sort  of  honorarium  to  a  permanent  working  editor  ? 
Or,  if  not,  could  we  find  a  scholar  whose  zeal  and 
whose  leisure  were  adequate  to  undertaking  what 
must  plainly  be  called  the  drudgery  of  the  editing  } 
For  my  own  part — and  probably  many  or  most  of 
us  are  in  a  somewhat  similar  case — I  could  not 
undertake  to  do  more  than  to  advise  on  articles 
relating  to  subjects  with  which  I  was  conversant. 
I  have  so  much  other  work  on  hand,  that  if  I  added 
to  it  the  duties  of  editorship  in  any  effective  sense, 
either  the  former  or  the  latter  must  suffer — probably 
both.  So  far  however  as  such  advising  goes,  I  would 
most  willingly  help  as  far  as  I  could,  always  on  the 
condition  that  it  did  not  involve  a  large  corre- 
spondence. The  idea  which  was  broached  at  a 
committee  meeting  last  summer  and  supported  by 
many  members,  might  with  advantage,  perhaps,  be 
kept  in  view — that  the  Society  might  find  at  least  one 
field  of  activity  in  the  photographing  of  important 
Greek  manuscripts.  Do  you  think  it  practicable  to 
issue  the  first  number  by  June  or  even  July  ?  You 
have  better  opportunities  of  judging,  but  I  should 
have  doubted.  If  the  photographing  idea  could  be 
brought  into  shape,  and  some  manuscript  done  this 
year,  it  would  be  a  guarantee  of  activity  and  would  at 
the  same  time  give  a  space  for  further  consolidation 


1879]  Visits  to  his  Mother  219 

of  the  Society  and  for  the  organising  of  an  editorial 
machinery. 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.   C.  Jebb." 

To  go  back  to  1879.  When  the  session  was  over 
J  ebb  went  again  to  Ireland.  Indeed  it  had  now  be- 
come a  rule  for  him  to  visit  Killiney  on  the  way 
to  England  or  Scotland  every  spring  and  autumn. 
His  mother's  health  was  failing,  and  for  the  next 
few  years  until  her  death,  every  plan  gave  way  if 
he  thought  she  wished  to  see  him.  "  I  will  come 
and  see  you  soon.  You  shall  hear  as  soon  as  I  can 
fix  the  time."  **You  shall  see  me,  please  God, 
before  the  end  of  October ;  we  will  talk  about  many 
things  then."  '*  I  can  fix  nothing  at  present  about 
coming  over  to  you  again,  but  I  shall  certainly  see 
you  sometime  before  the  Glasgow  session  begins  ; 
and  you  know  that  at  any  time  I  will  come  when 
you  want  me."  Such  are  the  endings  of  almost 
every  letter  to  her  from  this  time  on.  As  she  grew 
weaker,  his  constant  tender  thought  of  her  if  possible 
increased. 

The  move  from  Glasgow  to  Cambridge  this 
summer  meant  but  a  change,  not  a  slackening,  of 
strenuous  work.  The  intervening  ten  days  at 
Killiney  were  occupied  with  writing  an  article  on 
Greek  Literature  long  promised  to  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica.  Once  in  England,  the  affairs  of  the  new 
Renaissance  which  he  had  so  much  at  heart  absorbed 
him.     There  were  constant  visits  to  town  for  com- 


220  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1879 

mittee  meetings  of  the  Hellenic  Society  and  the 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies.  A  letter  from  Professor 
Newton  explaining  that  Oxford  would  be  happy  to 
consider  any  scheme  he  cared  to  submit,  setting  forth 
the  outlines  of  a  project  for  sending  students  to 
Greece,  impelled  him  to  give  attention  at  once  to 
this  point  before  the  University  authorities  separated 
for  the  long  vacation.  Altogether  it  was  a  season 
much  filled  for  him  with  scholastic  *' public  affairs," 
rewarded  however  by  valuable  results.  The  late 
Provost  of  Oriel  said, 

"  It  is  a  significant  fact  that,  while  the  national  Uni- 
versities, in  order  to  effect  a  slightly  more  beneficial 
application  of  their  great  revenues,  had  to  pass  through 
a  crisis  which  employed  some  of  their  best  energies  for 
years,  a  really  important  step  in  the  progress  of  the  higher 
studies  is  the  work  of  a  voluntary  association  set  on  foot 
by  a  small  number  of  persons." 

The  only  private  literary  work  which  one  of  that 
small  number  could  do  this  summer  was  a  long 
essay  on  the  Speeches  of  Thucydides  for  Mr  Evelyn 
Abbott's  Hellenica,  and  a  review  of  Mr  Froude's 
Ccesar  for  the  Edifiburgk.  September  was  free  of 
interruptions  and  could  be  devoted  to  the  making  of 
a  volume  of  Selections  from  the  Attic  Orators  which 
was  to  be  published  as  a  school-book  by  Messrs 
Macmillan. 

It  was  high  time  to  cry  halt,  if  the  '^patient 
dromedary,"  as  he  called  himself,  was  not  to  be  too 
jaded  for  the  Glasgow  session.  Early  in  October 
we  folded  our  tents — that  is  to  say  packed  our  boxes 


Paris  221 

and  let  our  house — and  silently  stole  away  to  Paris. 
The  collating  of  a  manuscript  there  merely  gave  zest 
to  the  enjoyment  of  his  holiday. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

"  Paris, 

October  ']th,   1879. 

We  arrived  here  on  Saturday  evening  at  6.30  at 
the  apartment  we  had  ordered.  We  are  in  a  little 
street  off  the  Rue  de  Rivoli,  in  a  small  French 
hotel,  well  known  to  English  people,  but  very  quiet 
and  altogether  French  in  its  ways.  We  have  a 
small  sitting-room  and  two  bedrooms,  one  on  each 
side  of  it,  shut  in  by  a  door  of  our  own,  like  a  little 
house.  I  go  to  the  National  Library  every  morning 
to  study  a  MS.  I  am  collating.  A  room  is  reserved 
for  students,  and  there  I  sit  from  1 1.30  till  about  3 ; — 
then  we  take  a  drive  in  the  Bois  and  come  back  to 
dinner  at  6.30.  Last  night  we  saw  Sarah  Bernhardt 
at  the  Fran^ais  and  we  go  again  to-morrow  to  see 
the  same  play." 

Occasionally  he  would  desert  the  Bibliotheque 
and  devote  the  whole  day  to  what  it  pleased  him  to 
call  Madame's  Fite.  He  would  get  the  best  horses 
to  be  had  at  the  remise — was  it  not  Madame's  f^le, 
and  could  she  protest!^ — for  a  long  drive  to  St 
Cloud  or  St  Germain.  We  would  see  everything  of 
interest  according  to  the  guidebook,  carefully  studied 
and  noted  beforehand — Madame  must  not  be  seen 
walking  about  with  a  red  book  in  her  hand — and 
we  would    have    the    most   delightful    little   dinner 


2  22  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1880 

imaginable;  he  would  even  order  cigars  for  Madame, 
and  considerately  smoke  them  himself.  Then,  when 
tired  of  sitting  under  the  trees,  we  would  drive  back 
to  Paris  in  the  clear  twilight.  On  all  such  occasions 
his  delight  was  as  fresh  as  a  boy's.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  imagine  a  more  amusing  companion. 
It  always  pleased  his  fancy  to  make  a  play  of  any 
little  treat ;  his  eyes  would  brighten  with  a  sidelong 
glance  peculiar  to  them  when  he  said,  ''  This  will  be 
a  'ploy.'" 

In  1879-80  J  ebb  came  back  to  Glasgow  at  peace 
with  all  the  world  he  thought — or  would  have  thought 
if  he  had  given  the  matter  consideration — when,  on 
opening  the  Scotsman  one  morning,  a  challenge  met 
his  astonished  eyes.  ''  Upon  my  word,  this  beats 
cockfighting ! "  he  exclaimed,  as  he  set  to  work  to 
write  his  answer,  addressed  not  to  the  challenger 
but  to  the  Editor. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Scotsman. 

"The  College,  Glasgow, 

January  23/-^,  1880. 

Sir, — I  have  read  with  some  astonishment  a 
long  letter  addressed  to  Professor  J  ebb,  Glasgow 
University,  beginning  'My  dear  Sir'  and  signed  by 
Professor  Blackie,  which  appeared  in  the  Scotsman 
to-day. 

Your  readers  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  I 
had  never  seen  a  word  of  this  letter,  or  heard  a 
syllable  of  Professor  Blackie's  intention  to  write  it, 
until  I  saw  it  this  morning  in  public  print. 


i88o]  Letter  to  Professor  Blackie  223 

Referring  to  a  paper  of  mine  on  '  Modern  Greek  * 
in  its  relation  to  the  study  of  '  Classical  Greek,' 
which  has  lately  appeared  in  the  Panhellenic  Annual^ 
Professor  Blackie  says  that  I  there  defend  '  a  most 
absurd  and  unreasonable  practice '  by  reasons  *  which 
have  neither  scientific  value  nor  practical  signifi- 
cance '  ;  that  I  labour  under  '  a  great  confusion  of 
ideas ' ;  and  that  English  scholars  generally  '  make 
a  miserable  boggle  at  the  ghost  of  a  difficulty.' 
Finally,  he  challenges  me  to  single  combat  before 
some  'learned  body,'  with  a  view  to  ending  'the 
empire  of  unreason.' 

It  is  a  high  compliment,  far  higher  than  I  deserve, 
to  suppose  that  the  demolition  of  my  views  would 
end  '  the  empire  of  unreason ' — a  very  flourishing 
empire,  as  Professor  Blackie's  letter  clearly  shows. 
But  I  must  altogether  decline  to  be  drawn,  without 
my  own  consent,  into  a  public  controversy  with 
Professor  Blackie,  either  in  the  columns  of  a  news- 
paper, or  before  a  '  learned  body.'  I  shall  however 
be  most  happy  to  defend  my  opinions  against  Pro- 
fessor Blackie,  so  soon  as  he  shall  have  proved  his 
right  to  be  the  champion  of  definite  opinions  opposed 
to  mine.  At  present  I  am  not  acquainted  with  any- 
thing in  Professor  Blackie's  published  writings  or 
utterances  which  entitle  him  to  claim  this  repre- 
sentative character  in  regard  to  a  definite  method  of 
teaching.  He  has  repeatedly  said,  in  language  of 
remarkable  strength,  that  the  methods  of  English 
Universities  and  schools  are  erroneous.  But  he  has 
never  yet  given  us  any  distinct  notion  of  that  true 


2  24  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1880 

method  which  Professor  Blackie,  and  he  alone, 
possesses.  The  nearest  approach  to  such  an  ex- 
position was  made  last  year.  Professor  Blackie 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  vehemently- 
denouncing  all  existing  methods  of  teaching  Greek, 
and  promising  to  explain  in  a  second  letter  how  the 
thing  ought  to  be  done.  We  were  all  on  the  tiptoe 
of  expectation.  Now  at  last,  we  thought,  a  ray  will 
surely  penetrate  our  darkness. 

Alas  for  human  hopes  ;  the  second  letter  never 
appeared !  And  so  to  this  day  we  do  not  know  how 
Professor  Blackie  teaches  Greek,  either  ancient  or 
modern  :  we  only  hear  rumours.  But  we  can  per- 
ceive in  our  own  purblind  way,  that  this  occult 
method  has  one  great  merit :  it  is  compatible  with 
large  leisure. 

A  word,  and  I  have  done.  Professor  Blackie's 
letter  suggests  that  I  have  been  '  following  his  lead ' 
in  endeavouring  to  connect  the  study  of  classical 
Greek  with  that  of  modern  Greek  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow.  I  beg  to  state  that  I  have  not  been 
following  Professor  Blackie's  '  lead '  for  a  simple 
reason.  Professor  Blackie  has  spoken  much  of 
modern  Greek,  but  I  was  not  aware  that  he  had 
ever  attempted  to  teach  it. 

I  am,  etc., 

R.  C.  Jebb." 

Professor  Blackie  addressed  his  answer  also  to 
the  Editor,  saying  that  it  was  not  his  intention  to 


i88o]  Modern  Greece  225 

trouble  him  with  a  detailed  discussion  of  the  per- 
verse English  system  of  reading  Greek  with  Roman 
accents.  '*  It  will  be  time  enough  to  do  that  when 
my  esteemed  and  accomplished  brother  Hellenist  in 
the  West,  or  any  other  scholar  eager  for  a  classical 
tilt,  shall  stand  publicly  forward  as  the  declared 
apologist  of  an  abuse."  At  the  same  time  he  wrote 
privately  to  Professor  J  ebb,  apparently  rather  pleased 
than  otherwise  at  having  put  his  challenge  on  record, 
to  say  that  he  meant  no  offence.  With  the  accept- 
ance of  this  apology  the  matter  ended.  Dr  Blackie 
was  an  accomplished  and  amiable  man,  blessed  with 
a  fortunate  want  of  sensitiveness. 

During  the  winter  of  1880  Professor  Jebb  gave 
two  lectures  before  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical 
Society,  the  object  of  which  was  to  interest  students 
in  Greece,  and  to  induce  them  to  visit  the  ancient 
sites  of  Hellenic  civilization.  The  lectures  were 
afterwards  published  in  book  form  under  the  title 
of  Modern  Greece.  At  the  end  of  the  session  he 
gave  a  course  of  lectures  at  Oxford,  by  request, 
using  the  opportunity  to  collate  some  manuscripts 
at  the  Bodleian  Library.  Not  until  June  23rd,  was 
he  free  to  begin  systematic  work  on  the  large  edition 
of  Sophocles,  his  most  important  contribution  to  pure 
scholarship. 

On  July  4th,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Dilettanti  Society. 

"This  is  a  small  private  society  of  gentlemen" — to 
quote  a  paragraph  from  its  History — "  which  for  more  than 
a  century  and  a  half  has  exercised  an  active  influence  in 

J.  M.  15 


2  26  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1880 

matters  connected  with  public  taste  and  the  fine  arts  in 
this  country ;  and  whose  enterprise  in  the  special  field  of 
classical  excavation  and  research  has  earned  the  grateful 
recognition  of  scholars  and  the  cultivated  public  throughout 
Europe.  There  may  be  persons,  outside  the  limited  circle 
of  its  members,  who  will  feel  some  surprise  on  learning  that 
such  a  society  exists  ;  that  it  was  founded  in  the  early  years 
of  the  reign  of  George  II  ;  and  has  maintained  its  existence 
with  an  unbroken  record  up  to  the  present  day.  The  in- 
tentions of  its  founders  (of  whom  the  notorious  Sir  Francis 
Dashwood  was  the  chief)  were  purely  social  and  convivial, 
which  is  what  makes  its  persistence  so  remarkable." 

On  August  14th,  he  heard  for  the  first  time  of 
another  dining  society. 

From  The  Honourable  Spencer  Walpole. 

"  London, 

August  \2>th,  1880. 

I  don't  know  whether  you  ever  heard  of  the  Literary 
Society.  You  will  see  it  contains  a  goodly  list  of  literary, 
scientific,  and  distinguished  Members ;  and  your  humble 
servant  is  and  has  been  for  many  years  the  President  of 

it I  have  reason  to  know  it  would  be  very  agreeable 

to  the  Society  if  you  would  let  me  have  the  pleasure  of 
•proposing   you  to  fill  up  the  vacancy  that  has  recently 
occurred    in   the   Honorary  list.     Honorary  members  are 
selected  from  those  who  do  not  live  in  London 

Yours  ever  very  sincerely, 

S.  H.  Walpole." 

He  was  elected  an  Honorary  Member  in  De- 
cember. 


i88o]  Elected  to  the  AthenaeuTu  227 

Yet  another  letter  of  slightly  earlier  date  about 
clubs ;  from  Mr  Leslie  Stephen. 

''July  1st,   1880. 

I    was   at   the   Athenaeum   Committee  to-day  to 

which  I  have  just  been  appointed.  A  book  of  yours 
happened  to  be  mentioned  and  suggested  the  remark  to 

some  of  the  members  that  you  ought  to  be  elected 

What  was  the  value  of  Pheidippides'  athletic  performance 
considered  in  the  light  of  modern  attainments  in  that  line } 
(You  see  what  points  attract  a  certain  class  of  readers.)  I 
should  think  that  some  curious  facts  might  be  brought  out 
about  ancient  athleticism  by  such  comparison  if  possible : 
but  I  suppose  it  is  all  written  somewhere  out  of  my 
knowledge. 

Yours  ever, 

L.  Stephen." 

He  was  unanimously  elected  a  member  of  the 
Athenaeum  by  the  Committee  at  their  first  meeting 
in  1 88 1.  The  other  tv^^o  members  elected  v^ere 
General  Sir  Frederick  Roberts  and  Sir  C.  Wyville 
Thomson.  ''  Fame  may  be  built  on  the  Greeks, — 
wrested  from  the  Afghans, — or  dredged  from  the 
deep  sea: — but  somehow  attained  it  must  be  by 
the  novena  quotannis  corpora  clarorum,''  wrote  Mr 
F.  W.   H.   Myers  in  congratulating  him. 

In  October  a  manuscript  of  Sophocles  was  again 
the  determining  factor  in  our  visit  abroad.  We  started 
for  Venice  on  the  5th,  taking  the  new  route  via 
Vlissingen  in  Holland — thence  through  Cologne  to 
Mayence,  where  we  stayed  the  night.  Of  all  the 
many  journeys  we  took  together,  the  next  stages 

15—2 


228  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1880 

from  Mayence  on  to  Verona  had  place  in  our 
memories  as  the  most  beautiful.  All  down  the 
valley  of  the  Inn  as  far  as  Innsbruck,  and  over  the 
Brenner  Pass  into  Italy,  the  magnificent  autumn 
colours  held  us  spellbound.  We  had  to  agree 
not  to  tell  each  other  to  look  at  anything,  so  con- 
stant at  first  was  the  turning  from  side  to  side — 
where  all  was  equally  enchanting.  Just  to  lie  back 
on  our  cushions  and  gaze  at  the  sunlit  scene  glorified 
our  common  car  into  a  heavenly  chariot, 

"  Where  even  a  God  might  gaze,  and  stand  apart. 
And  feel  a  wondering  rapture  at  the  heart." 

Travelling  in  such  leisurely  fashion,  and  stopping 
when  the  spirit  moved  us,  we  reached  Venice  on  the 
9th.  What  an  arrival  that  was  !  To  walk  out  of  the 
station  and  find  oneself  face  to  face  with  that  sea 
and  sky,  to  step  straight  into  a  gondola  and  float 
gently  down  past  palace  and  dome  until  we  came  to 
our  hotel  beyond  the  Ducal  Palace  :— surely  we  had 
wandered  into  fairyland ! 

As  in  Paris  he  spent  an  hour  or  two  every  morn- 
ing in  the  Library,  at  the  Ducal  Palace,  and  in  the 
afternoons  we  went  about  in  a  gondola  threading 
the  canals  to  churches  and  points  of  interest.  We 
were  never  in  a  hurry,  having  a  fortnight  to  play 
with.  In  the  evenings  we  would  go  out  again,  often 
on  the  Lagune  to  get  the  wide  view  by  moonlight. 
We  came  back  from  Italy  by  a  different  route,  where 
again  the  autumn  colours  were  splendid — notably 
between   Modena  and   Culoz.      It  was  a  delightful 


i88o]  Hellenic  Journal  229 

experience  to   look  back  upon   in  the  dark  winter 
days  at  Glasgow. 

The  first  volume  of  the  Hellenic  Journal  was 
published  soon  after  our  return.  The  press  gave  it 
a  cordial  welcome,  and  the  thoughtful  reviews  elicited 
by  its  able  articles  were  a  good  augury  of  perma- 
nent success.  There  was  much  need  of  such  a 
Journal.  Dr  D.  B.  Monro  told  a  story  of  a  pamphlet 
published  years  before  by  an  eminent  scholar  in 
which  the  author  said  :  '*  It  is  hardly  credible  that  in 
a  country  professing  such  a  profound  respect  for  what 
is  called  a  classical  education,  those  who  take  an 
interest  in  ancient  literature,  or  even  live  by  it, 
should  be  absolutely  destitute  of  any  medium  of  com- 
munication devoted  to  their  special  studies \"  This 
pamphlet  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  German  Professor 
and  excited  his  utmost  astonishment.  *'  Denken  Sie 
nur,  meine  Herren,"  he  said  in  a  voice  of  emotion, 
**  im  Vaterland  des  Bentley's  !  " 

^  The  dearth  was  not  quite  so  extreme.  The  Philological 
Society,  which  began  life  in  1868  under  the  auspices  of  Professor 
Cowell  and  R.  C.  Jebb,  had  a  Journal  of  Philology ;  and  there 
was  also  from  1873  ^^  Dublin  Hermathena. 


CHAPTER   X. 

SPRINGFIELD.      BENTLEY.      ATTACK   ON   GLASGOW 
UNIVERSITY.     THE  TROAD.     SCHOOL  AT  ATHENS. 

1881— 1883. 

One  morning  in  February,  on  opening  the  news- 
paper he  saw  the  announcement  that  Dr  Swainson 
was  made  Master  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  a 
fact  specially  interesting  to  us,  inasmuch  as  Dr 
Swainson  lived  in  a  house  much  more  suited  for 
a  summer  residence  than  our  own  in  St  Peter's 
Terrace.  With  the  remark  :  **  Did  grass  grow  under 
the  feet  of  the  man  of  toil  ?  it  did  not "  :  he  turned 
to  his  writing-table  and  wrote  straightway  a  telegram, 
reply  paid,  asking  for  the  refusal  of  the  house.  We 
trembled  until  the  reply  came  back  in  the  affirmative. 
The  house  was  called  Springfield,  not  from  any 
special  relation  it  held  to  the  pleasant  season,  but 
because  three  springs  existed  in  its  grounds.  One 
of  these  had  been  led  through  the  cellar  and  made 
into  a  little  well  by  the  thoughtfulness  of  the  late 
occupier.  *'  So  useful  to  cool  your  champagne,"  he 
told  us. 

We  took  possession  in  July,  and  soon  Spring- 
field became  as  dear  to  him  as  Desmond  and  Danes- 
fort  had  been.     Some  rooms  were  added  later,  the 


1 88 1  ]  Spring  Aeld  231 

chief  of  which — the  largest  in  the  house — became 
his  study.  It  grew  to  be,  as  some  rooms  do,  almost 
a  part  of  ourselves.  He  used  often  to  say,  "  I  love 
my  study  "  ;  and  that  its  bright  look  to  him  when  he 
entered  it  in  the  morning  was  like  a  living  welcome. 
I  am  glad  to  think  he  had  the  happiness  of  it  for 
so  many  as  seventeen  years.  It  was  by  a  fortunate 
chance  that  we  built  it  soon  after  we  bought  the 
lease. 

On  the  1st  of  July  his  beloved  Aunt  Tiny  (Miss 
Eglantyne  Horsley)  died.  He  felt  deeply  this  first 
break  In  the  dear  circle  that  had  hedged  him  about 
with  love  from  the  day  of  his  birth.  His  aunt,  Miss 
Horsley,  wrote,  "  I  know  you  will  come  over  if  you 
can  to  pay  a  last  mark  of  respect  to  the  dear  one 
who  loved  you  so  very  very  dearly." 

He  went  to  Ireland  at  once,  not  only  for  the 
funeral  but  to  comfort  her. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

''July  ^th,  1881. 

I  have  just  come  back  from  the  funeral My 

dearest  mother  broke  down  for  a  while  but  is  now 
composed  and  cheerful.  We  all  feel  that  there  can 
be  nothing  of  gloom  in  our  memory  of  the  pure  and 
beautiful  life  that  has  ceased  on  earth  ;  and  that  the 
time  ordered  for  its  close  was  the  best,  when  the 
cloud  had  passed  from  the  mind,  leaving  it  in  clear 
possession  of  the  simple  faith  that  It  had  cherished 
so  truly  through  those  long  years,  so  that,  weak  and 
suffering  as  she  was,  she  could  still  meet  the  great 


232  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1881 

change  In  the  spirit  of  a  little  child.  If  ever  a  human 
soul  was  prepared  to  enter  a  higher  existence  it  was 
hers.  Those  who  knew  her  will  have  her  memory 
with  them  as  a  purifying  and  ennobling  influence  to 
their  lives'  end." 

Hardly  had  he  returned  to  Cambridge  after  the 
funeral  when  a  severe  attack  of  rheumatism  accom- 
panied by  mental  depression  and  great  physical 
lassitude  prostrated  him.  He  could  not  plan,  he 
could  not  write.  Even  the  diary  went  without  its 
short  daily  line  ;  from  the  9th  of  July  till  the  27th 
of  August  its  pages  were  blank.  On  the  24th  of 
August  we  went  to  Killiney  hoping  sea  air  might  be 
beneficial  to  him — his  third  visit  since  April.  On 
the  27th  the  diary  was  opened  to  record  : — '*  My 
fortieth  birthday,  spent  with  Father  and  Mother  and 
C."  Another  attack  of  rheumatism  laid  him  up  for 
a  week,  and  then,  at  last,  came  the  turn  towards 
health.     Energy  revived  and  he  could  take  up  work. 

The  task  on  hand  was  a  book  on  Bentley  for  the 
English  Men  of  Letters  series  which  Mr  John 
Morley  was  editing.  He  greatly  enjoyed  writing 
this  book,  though  the  lesson  it  taught  him  was  never 
again  to  have  part  or  lot  in  a  series  of  any  kind.  It 
is  a  sort  of  Procrustean  bed.  No  matter  how  much 
an  author  has  to  tell,  his  narrative  must  be  cut  off  if 
it  grows  beyond  a  certain  length.  Now,  his  writing 
was  never  diffuse,  and  to  compress  what  was  already 
compressed  to  the  limit  of  artistic  proportion,  was 
in  his  judgment,  to  spoil. 


i88i]  Life  of  Bentley  233 

All  the  same,  his  Bentley  is  a  delightful  book. 
The  great  scholar  was  a  man  of  masterful  will — a 
born  tyrant.  His  determination  to  have  his  own  way, 
if  not  by  fair  means  then  by  foul,  was  quite  unweak- 
ened  by  any  consideration  for  the  rights  of  others. 
Moreover  it  was  accompanied  by  great  skill  in  using 
the  weaknesses  of  others  to  help  him  in  the  attain- 
ment of  his  own  ends.  The  mere  study  of  such  a 
character  was  interesting  to  a  man  who  loved  force 
and  originality,  even  though  it  provoked,  as  it  often 
did,  an  indignation  which  was  only  tempered  by  a 
sense  of  the  ludicrous.  Bentley's  story  is  of  fasci- 
nating interest.  If  ever  a  man  marched  through 
life  militant  and  triumphant,  he  did,  winning  all  along 
the  line,  in  his  controversies  with  other  scholars,  in 
his  struggle  for  supremacy  with  the  Fellows  of  his 
College,  in  his  encounters  with  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  fight  with  the  Fellows  of  Trinity  College, 
which  began  almost  with  his  appointment  to  the 
Mastership,  lasted  through  nearly  the  whole  of  his 
tenure.  The  pages  of  the  Bentley — compressed  as 
they  are — yet  contain  a  most  vivid  picture  of  Uni- 
versity life  at  that  time,  and  of  the  tyranny  which 
Masters  of  Colleges  used  to  delight  in.  It  seems 
inconceivable,  now,  that,  when  Bentley  was  sentenced 
to  be  deprived  of  the  Mastership,  he  could  evade 
and  finally  overcome  so  plain  a  judgment,  simply  by 
the  terror  his  powerful  personality  inspired  in  the 
only  man  who  could  legally  execute  the  sentence. 
The  statute  on  which  the  judgment  rested,  prescribes 
that  the  Master,  if  convicted  by  the  Visitor,  shall  be 


234  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [  1 8  8 1 

deprived  by  the  agency  of  the  Vice-Master.  Rather 
than  embroil  himself  in  endless  litigation,  the  exist- 
ing Vice-Master  resigned  his  post.  The  appoint- 
ment of  his  successor  rested  with  Bentley,  who  put 
in  Dr  Walker,  one  of  his  friends.  The  new  Vice- 
Master  simply  did  nothing.  ''In  vain  every  resource 
which  ingenuity  could  suggest  was  employed  to  force 
Dr  Walker  into  executing  the  sentence.  Three 
different  motions  were  made  in  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench  ;  first,  for  a  writ  to  compel  Dr  Walker  to  act  ; 
next,  for  a  writ  to  compel  the  Bishop  of  Ely  to 
compel  Dr  Walker  to  act ;  then,  for  a  writ  to  compel 
the  Bishop  to  do  his  own  duty  as  General  Visitor. 
All  in  vain.  The  Court  rejected  the  last  of  these 
applications.  It  was  a  habit  with  Bentley  to  set  the 
candidates  for  scholarships  to  write  on  some  theme 

connected    with    his    own    fortunes Once,   at   a 

pinch  in  his  wars,  he  gave  them  from  Homer ; — 
*  Despoil  others  but  keep  hands  off  Hector.'  This 
time  the  text  he  set  the  young  composers  was 
from  Terence  :  '  This  is  your  plea  now, — look  you, 
there  are  ups  and  downs  in  all  things.'"  It  thrills 
one's  blood  to  see  what  an  indomitable  courage 
filled  the  breast  of  that  veteran  fighter  and  what 
resource!  '*The  strife  begun  in  1710  was  only  ended 
in  1738,  when  many  had  died  and  all  had  aged. 
Bentley  at  78  remained  master  of  the  field — and  of 
the  College." 

Looking  back  on  the  war  Professor  J  ebb  asks, — 
*'  Who  is  to  blame  ?  Dr  Parr  thought  the  College 
wrong.     De  Quincey  approves  his  opinion  but  goes 


i88i]  Life  of  Bent  ley  235 

further.  '  Even  granting  that  Bentley  was  wrong,' 
De  Quincey  says,  *  we  ought  to  vote  him  right,  for 
by  this  means  the  current  of  one's  sympathy  with 
an  illustrious  man  is  cleared  of  ugly  obstructions.' 
It  is  good  to  be  in  sympathy  with  an  illustrious 
man,  but  it  is  better  to  be  just."  Professor  Jebb 
decides  against  Bentley  on  both  the  legal  and  moral 
issue.  "  Legally,  after  prolonged  investigations  by 
lawyers,  he  was  found  guilty.  Morally,  the  first 
question  is : — was  Bentley  obliged  to  break  the 
statute  in  order  to  keep  some  higher  law?  He 
certainly  was  not.  A  further  moral  question 
concerns    the   nature   of   his    conduct    towards    the 

Fellows There  had  been  faults  on  both  parts, 

but  it  was  Bentley's  intolerable  behaviour  which 
first  forced  the  Fellows  into  an  active  defence  of 
the  common  interests." 

The  Bentley,  though  finished  in  October  1881, 
was  not  published  until  April  1882.  When  printed  it 
was  found  to  exceed  by  fifty  pages  the  designated 
number  allowed  for  the  series,  and  the  author  had  to 
find  what  time  he  could  for  pruning  its  excess  during 
the  winter. 

November  1881  was  remarkable  for  its  great 
gales  which  continued  throughout  the  early  winter. 
For  the  Universities  it  was  also  a  month  of  storm 
in  another  sense.  The  great  prosperity  of  Glasgow 
University,  the  ever  climbing  number  of  its  students, 
became  intolerable  to  the  schoolmasters.  The  Rector 
of  the    High    School,    Edinburgh,    gave   a   lecture 


236  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [188 1 

arraigning  the  Universities  for  their  greediness,  and 
singled  out  Glasgow  for  attack  by  saying  that  boys 
went  thither  direct  from  the  Fifth  Standard  of  the 
schools.  Professor  Jack  of  Glasgow  replied  in  the 
Glasgow  Herald  and  was  answered  in  the  Scotsman, 
the  editors  of  both  papers  taking  part  strongly 
against  the  University.  Professor  Ramsay  next 
addressed  a  letter,  afterwards  published,  to  the 
Rector  of  the  High  School,  followed  by  a  reply  and 
another  rejoinder  from  Professor  Ramsay.  Principal 
Tulloch  of  St  Andrews  publicly  attacked  the  manage- 
ment of  the  large  Glasgow  classes,  which  he  described 
as  ''mobs  of  boys."  Professor  Ramsay  entered  into 
a  correspondence  with  him,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Principal  lost  his  temper  and  denied  that  he 
had  said  "boys";  thought,  as  well  as  he  could 
remember,  the  word  used  was  ''  lads "  ;  and  when 
asked  to  define  lads,  found  the  dictionary  definition 
wide.  Well,  it  is  an  old  story  now,  but  it  made  that 
winter  a  very  lively  one.  They  were  doughty  cham- 
pions all,  and  the  letters  and  speeches  were  full  of 
pith  and  moment,  expressed  with  great  frankness, — 
exceeding  good  reading. 

Professor  J  ebb  took  no  part  in  the  controversy 
until  his  name  was  brought  in  by  Principal  Tulloch. 
It  was  not  natural  for  him  to  keep  silence  when  his 
friends  were  attacked  and,  perhaps,  he  was  not 
displeased  at  being  forced  into  print.  He  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Herald  dealing 
with  the  whole  subject,  of  which  some  extracts  are 
given  here. 


1882]  Attack  on  the  Universities  237 

"  The  College,  Glasgow, 
January  ^th,   1882. 

Sir, 

I  have  taken  no  part  in  the  controversy 

on  University  reform.     I  find  however attention 

has  been  drawn  to  certain  words  of  mine Since 

these  words  have  been  pubHcly  quoted,  it  appears 
desirable  that  the  views  they  indicate  should  be 
clearly  stated. 

Principal  Tulloch  says  to  Professor  Ramsay  : — 
*  I  have  no  doubt  that  both  you  and  Professor  J  ebb 
honestly  believe  in  the  advantages  of  large  classes. 
I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  accept  either  of  you,  for 
good  reasons,  as  fair  authorities  on  the  subject.' 
Principal  Tulloch  means  that  our  pecuniary  interests 
are  involved.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  no 
scheme  of  University  Reform  has  yet  been  pro- 
pounded which  does  not  contemplate  a  contingent 
necessity  for  compensation.  No  scheme  of  reform 
could  justly  do  otherwise.  So  far  as  the  present 
occupants  of  the  Chairs  are  concerned,  a  numerical 
diminution  of  the  classes  could  scarcely  involve  any 
great  difference  in  the  Professors'  emoluments,  while 
it  would  probably  render  their  position  more  agree- 
able in  some  other  respects.  One  way  in  which  it 
would  certainly  conduce  to  their  comfort  would  be 
by  protecting  them  against  unworthy  insinuations." 

After  saying  that  a  fallacy  pervaded  the  arguments 
of  the  attacking  party  he  continued  :  "  No  reasonable 
person  will  suppose  that  I  defend  the  Scottish  Uni- 
versities as  if  they  differed  from  other  human  insti- 


238  Sh'  Richard  Jebb  [1882 

tutions  In  being  perfect.  I  am  equally  far  from 
holding  that  they  are  even  as  good  as  they  might  be  ; 
and  I  believe  that  few  persons  can  be  more  anxious 
than  I  am  to  see  them  made  better.  I  am  endea- 
vouring to  explain  what,  in  theory  and  practice, 
they  are,  in  order  that  we  may  stand  on  firm  ground 
in  considering  how  they  may  be  improved.  They 
have  been  shaped  by  the  history  and  character  of 
the  Scottish  nation.  Whatever  may  be  done  with 
them  now  or  at  a  later  time,  that  history  and  that 
character  must  still  be,  not  dead  records,  but 
living  agencies,  moulding  the  present,  in  each 
successive  phase,  as  they  have  moulded  the  past. 
Legislation  and  expenditure  could  no  more  give 
Scotland  a  German  University  than  they  could  give 
Great  Britain  a  German  Army.  Do  what  you  like 
with  the  army,  it  will  remain  British  :  do  what  you 
like  with  the  Universities,  they  will  remain  in  heart 
and  spirit  Scottish.  It  is  generally  allowed,  I 
believe,  that  the  Universities  have  done,  and  are 
doing,  useful  work  for  the  country.  The  present 
controversy  set  out  from  the  contention  that  the 
work  which  they  are  doing  is  not  the  work  of  Uni- 
versities but  the  work  of  schools,  that  consequently 
the  whole  intellectual  growth  of  Scotland  has  been 
stunted  ;  and  that  hence  Scotland  has  ceased  to  be  a 
mother  of  intellectual  heroes.  I  am  tempted  to  ask 
— do  the  Universities  really  stand  lower  at  this  day, 
relatively  to  the  higher  education  elsewhere,  than 
they  stood  in  the  young  days  of  Brewster  and  Car- 
lyle  ?     Is  not  the  occurrence  of  great  genius  always 


1882]  Attack  on  the   Universities  239 

beyond  human  calculation  ?  Are  there  not  living 
Scotchmen,  trained  in  Scotland,  whose  names  will 
seem  very  eminent  when  they  are  gone  ?  And  is 
there  not  in  our  time  an  influence  specially  adverse 
to  the  apparent  greatness  of  our  contemporaries — 
especially  in  the  sphere  of  science  and  letters — I 
mean  the  enormous  volume  of  journalism,  daily  or 
periodic,  which  by  incessant  dissipation  of  public 
interest,  dwarfs  the  single  reputation — except  those 
of  a  few  politicians  ?  But  I  pass  these  questions 
by.  The  unqualified  identification  of  the  Scottish 
Universities  with  schools  contains  an  element  of 
exaggeration. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  an  element  of  truth 
in  the  complaint  that  the  Scottish  Universities  are 
mere  schools.  It  resides  in  the  fact  that  though  we 
can  go  as  high  as  we  please,  we  have  to  begin  too 
low  down.  This  is  the  result  of  two  general  causes. 
One  is  the  natural  desire  of  a  highly  intellectual 
people  for  the  best  education  within  their  reach. 
The  other  is  the  insufficiency  of  the  country's 
material  resources  for  the  adequate  gratification  of 
this  natural  desire 

I  have  conclusive  evidence  from  facts  within 
my  own  knowledge  that  by  far  the  greater  propor- 
tion of  the  Scottish  people  could  not  enter  the  Uni- 
versities at  all,  if  the  standard  of  University  teaching 
was  suddenly  so  raised  as  to  presuppose  training  of 
the  kind  which  is  furnished  at  a  good  secondary 
school.  Scotland  has  not  resources  of  secondary 
education   available   for   the    nation   at   large.      If, 


240  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1882 

meanwhile,  the  Universities  were  artificially  forced 
up  to  a  theoretical  academic  standard,  the  system  of 
Scottish  education  would  be  violently  dislocated.  A 
chasm  would  be  opened  between  the  lower  and  the 
higher  instruction.  For  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  there  would  be  no  bridge  across  that  gulf 
We  require  academic  development ;  we  must  not  be 
hurried  by  clamour  into  what  might  arrest  or  destroy 
it,  academic  revolution. 

Meantime  let  us  by  all  means  have  University 
reform  ;  let  that  reform  be  animated  by  noble  aspira- 
tions ;  but  let  us  also  remember  that  it  must  be 
founded  on  existing  facts." 

The  Editor  of  the  Heraldh^g^xi  his  reply,  which 
appeared  the  next  morning,  with  a  story  :  "  There  is 
a  well-known  scene  in  a  play  where  a  valiant  Scot, 
ranging  over  a  battlefield  in  quest  of  the  leader 
whose  fall  would  determine  the  day,  is  driven  to 
exclaim — '  Another  King !  They  grow  like  Hydra's 
heads!'  He  had  already  settled  with  two  or  three 
who  bore  the  tokens  of  leadership,  but  meeting  with 
another  in  the  same  guise  he  found  he  had  still  all 

his  work  before  him Professor  J  ebb  now  takes  up 

the  ground  of  the  fallen  heroes,  but  it  would  be 
unfair  to  credit  him  with  any  consciousness  of 
leadership.  He  was  dragged  to  the  front  by  a 
companion  and  placed  where  he  finds  he  must  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  battle." 

He  was  not  a  man  to  mind  that,  or  indeed  to 
feel  anything  but  pleasure  in  such  a  position,  but 
having  said  his  say,  he  kept  to  his  resolution  not  to 


1882]  Visit  to  France  241 

engage  in  a  controversial  correspondence.  Many 
responses  were  made  to  his  letter,  but  he  wrote  no 
more. 

The  controversy  gradually  died  down  and  the 
University  was  left  in  peace  to  continue  its  own 
deliberations.  Three  long  meetings  of  the  Arts 
Faculty  resulted  in  agreement  on  the  basis  of  a 
scheme  for  Entrance  Examinations,  which  were  to 
come  into  operation  the  next  year.  This  scheme 
was  to  be  tentative  and  subject  to  future  modifica- 
tions— having  regard  to  the  imperfect  state  of  se- 
condary education.  In  November,  1883,  Entrance 
Examinations  were  finally  established.  These  were 
preparatory  to  the  much  larger  University  reforms 
carried  out  under  the  Universities  Commission  of 
1889. 

After  such  a  winter  the  change  to  sunny  Italy 
was  delightful.  We  went  to  Florence  in  order  that 
he  might  collate  a  manuscript  of  Sophocles  in  the 
Biblioteca  Laurenzia7ia.  We  took  a  young  American 
niece  with  us,  and  found  many  friends  either  estab- 
lished in  Florence  or  visiting  there,  whom  it  was 
pleasant  to  meet.  The  last  traces  of  the  rheumatic 
attack  vanished  and  Jebb  was  able  to  join  in  all 
our  various  excursions  and  sight- seeing  expeditions. 
He  was  glad  to  meet  several  foreign  scholars,  and 
was  successful  in  making  arrangements  for  the  photo- 
graphing of  the  manuscript  of  Sophocles  which  the 
Hellenic  Society  wished  to  publish. 

On  June  2nd  we  turned  our  faces  homewards. 
The  St  Gothard  route  had  been  opened  with  much 

J.  M.  16 


242  »S/r  Richard  J  ebb  [1882 

ceremony  only  the  day  before  ;  by  taking  it  we  not 
only  had  the  delight  of  its  marvellous  scenery,  but 
in  addition  the  zest  which  a  slight  sense  of  danger 
gives  to  the  other  attractions  of  travel. 

After  a  summer  of  steady  work  on  Sophocles, 
Professor  Jebb  joined  Professor  and  Mrs  Goodwin 
of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  a  visit  to  the 
Troad,  impelled  by  a  wish  to  see  for  himself  the 
remains  of  the  seven  cities,  more  or  less,  which 
Dr  Schliemann  had  uncovered  at  Hissarlik,  and  one 
of  which  the  explorer  proclaimed  to  be  the  Troy 
of  Homer.  Professor  Jebb  had  small  faith  in  his 
accuracy  and  none  at  all  in  his  theories.  His  own 
knowledge  of  classical  literature  made  him  certain 
that  in  many  points  Dr  Schliemann  was  hopelessly 
wrong.  When  I  asked  him  if  it  was  not  rash  to 
assert  so  strongly  a  view  that  might  be  disproved  by 
further  discoveries,  he  said,  "  You  may  trust  me  for 
that :  Homer's  evidence  about  what  Homer  meant 
can't  be  disproved." 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"  Constantinople, 

September,  1882. 

We  arrived  yesterday  morning  at  seven,  and  I 
found  your  letters  at  the  Poste  Restante — to  my 
great  satisfaction.  We  did  a  very  hard  day's  sight- 
seeing and  I  had  not  a  moment  to  write.  This 
morning  I  am  writing  this  before  we  start  at  9  a.m. 
on  another  day's  exploring.  Yesterday  being  Friday, 
we  drove  to  the  gates  of  the  Sultan's  palace  and  saw 


1882]  Constantinople  243 

him  ride  forth  to  attend  a  mosque  close  by.  He  is 
a  careworn,  used-up  looking  man  of  about  thirty- 
eight,  with  a  black  beard — rather  handsome  than 
otherwise.  His  horse  was  quite  as  well  worth  seeing 
— a  splendid  animal.  Then  we  went  to  the  dancing 
dervishes — a  mildly  interesting  sight.  The  Sultan 
and  the  Turks  generally  are  intensely  disgusted  with 
the  English  victory  in  Egypt.  The  Turks  were 
almost  to  a  man  with  Arabi.  The  Sultan  is  bitterly 
hated  in  Constantinople,  partly  for  his  foreign  policy, 
partly  for  his  system  of  espionage  and  his  sentences 
of  banishment.  He  never  dares  to  leave  his  palace, 
within  a  park  of  fifty  acres,  except  on  Fridays,  when 
he  goes  a  few  yards  to  the  Mosque.  Five  thousand 
men  guard  him  constantly. 

We  rowed  across  the  Bosphorus  yesterday  to  the 
*  Sweet  Waters  of  Asia,'  a  stream  with  a  large  open 
field  near  it  where  the  people  take  coffee  and  disport 
themselves.  We  stay  till  Wednesday — then  to  Troy. 
So  far  everything  has  gone  prosperously  and  very 
pleasantly.  I  foresee  that  when  we  go  to  the  Troad 
the  number  of  our  party,  one  being  a  lady  too,  may 
make  the  expedition  in  the  wilder  parts  rather  difficult. 
With  the  two  boys  we  shall  be  more  like  a  nomad 
tribe  than  anything  else.  However,  both  Goodwin 
and  his  wife  are  resolute  travellers  and  bent  on  seeing 
everything." 

The  opinions  Professor  J  ebb  formed  after  seeing 
the  excavations  were  embodied  in  several  articles 
published  in  the  Fortnightly,  the  Nineteenth  Century, 

16 — 2 


244  ►5'zV  Richard  J  ebb  [1882 

and  elsewhere.  A  good  deal  of  feeling  was  excited 
among  those  who  agreed  with  Dr  Schliemann  in  his 
theories,  and  a  rather  prolonged  controversy  was  the 
result.  The  verdict  of  time,  I  am  told,  has  not  been 
in  favour  of  Dr  Schliemann's  conclusions. 

Meanwhile,  an  event  had  happened  in  Scotland 
which  was  a  deep  satisfaction  to  the  Professor  of 
Greek  in  Glasgow.  His  very  dear  friend,  Mr  S.  H. 
Butcher  (now  M.P.  for  Cambridge  University),  had 
been  persuaded  to  stand  for  the  Greek  Chair  at 
Edinburgh,  had  been  elected  and  come  into  residence. 
It  was  a  great  thing  to  Professor  J  ebb  to  have  for 
his  neighbour  a  scholar  who  stood  on  his  own  level, 
and  who  was  moreover  bound  to  him  by  the  closest 
ties  of  sympathy  and  affectionate  friendship.  Many 
times  did  I  hear  him  say  that  winter,  **  Thank  heaven, 
Butcher  is  in  Edinburgh." 

When  the  Glasgow  session  of  1883  ended  we 
went  to  London.  Jebb  thought  the  time  had  come 
to  make  another  effort  for  the  belated  School  at 
Athens.  He  had  in  1882  brought  the  subject  up  at 
a  Council  Meeting  of  the  Hellenic  Society,  but  that 
Society  was  not  then  disposed  to  take  action.  A 
suggestion  indeed  was  made  that  the  French  School 
should  be  asked  to  admit  one  or  two  English  scholars 
among  its  students.     Jebb  was  opposed  to  this. 

To  Mr  George  Macmillan. 

^''December  12,   1882. 
With  regard  to  the  proposal  for  having  English 
students  admitted  to  the  French  School  (or  other 


1882]  British  School  at  Athens  245 

foreign  school),  there  could  be  no  practical  objection 
to  it,  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  except,  I  think, 
on  these  two  grounds:  (i)  It  would  be  scarcely  a 
worthy  manner  for  England's  first  appearance  at 
Athens,  and  would  bring  into  strong  relief  the  com- 
parative deadness  of  archaeological  interest  in  this 
country,  the  wealth  of  which  is  even  exaggerated  by 
foreigners.  (2)  In  so  far  as  money  was  required  for 
the  English  students  so  admitted,  it  would  rather 
tend  to  draw  on  the  sources  of  funds  to  which  we 
must  look  in  the  event  of  our  attempting  to  establish 
an  English  School.  Men  who  had  given  a  small 
contribution  towards  the  provisional  scheme  would 
be  less  likely  to  give  a  large  one  afterwards  :  they 
would  have  had  enough  of  the  subject. 

It  is  a  different  question  how  far  this  scheme  of 
archaeological  /xerot/cot  in  a  foreign  school  would  be 
likely  to  work  satisfactorily.  Assuming,  however, 
that  it  would  work  smoothly,  I  should  be  disposed 
to  say :  Make  up  your  minds  first  whether  you  are 
going  to  try  for  an  English  School  now.  If  you  are, 
then  drop  the  jneroi/cot  scheme.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  English 
School  must  be  put  off  indefinitely,  or  at  least  for 
several  years,  then  go  in  for  the  other  plan  as  a 
pis-aller. 

My  own  belief  is  that  by  a  really  vigorous  effort 
we  could  get  an  English  School  started  in  (say)  two 
or  three  years  from  now.  I  should  prefer,  then,  to 
refrain  from  the  other  plan  till  such  an  effort  had 
been  made,  and  had  failed. 


246  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1883 

It  is  most  desirable,  obviously,  that  the  two 
plans  should  not  come  before  the  Council  as  rivals, 
dividing  the  support  of  those  whose  influence  would 
be  most  valuable.  If  the  relation  of  the  two  plans 
to  each  other  is  seen  at  all  in  such  a  light  as  I  have 
indicated,  this  will  not  be  the  case.  I  shall  be  greatly 
interested  in  the  result  of  the  discussions,  if  you  will 
kindly  send  me  a  line." 

This  year  he  meant  to  take  steps  independently 
of  the  Hellenic  Society.  He  found  an  ally  in  the 
newly  appointed  editor  of  the  Fortnightly  Review, 
Mr  Escott,  who  took  up  the  scheme  warmly  and 
agreed  to  make  the  Review  a  means  of  communication 
between  him  and  the  public.  In  May  he  published 
in  its  columns  A  Plea  for  a  British  School  at  Athens, 
The  article  began  with  an  anecdote  from  history, 
"  When  Joshua  Barnes  was  bringing  out  his  edition 
of  Homer,  he  extorted  the  consent  of  Mrs  Barnes 
to  the  investment  of  her  fortune  in  that  work  by 
representing  the  Iliad  as  the  composition  of  King 
Solomon.  Similarly  the  British  taxpayer  can  be 
induced  to  tolerate  the  application  of  public  money 
to  researches,  such  as  the  exploration  of  Sinai  or 
Palestine,  which  can  in  any  way  be  associated  with 
the  Bible  ;  but  there  he  draws  the  line.  It  is  just 
ten  years  since  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  made  an 
application  to  the  Exchequer  asking  that  the  tumuli 
on  the  plain  of  Troy  should  be  examined  at  the 
public  cost.  Lord  Sherbrooke  replied  that  excava- 
tions undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the 
Iliad  were  not  a  proper  object  for  the  expenditure 


1883]  British  School  at  Athens  247 

of  public  money  ;  asking  pertinently  : — *  Is  not  the 
literary  enthusiasm  of  wealthy  England  equal  to  the 
enterprise  of  exploring  scenes  which  are  ever  re- 
curring to  the  imagination  of  everyone  who  has 
received  a  classical  education?'  and  sincerely  re- 
gretting '  that  the  spirit  of  H erodes  Atticus  has 
not  descended  to  modern  times.' 

An  interesting  train  of  thought  is  suggested  by 

Lord  Sherbrooke's  regret What  we  seem  to  lack 

is  scarcely  the  spirit  of  H erodes  Atticus — the  spirit 
of  a  generosity  which  flows  in  all  the  obvious  and 
popularly  recognised  channels — but  rather  a  more 
original  and  inventive  instinct  of  munificence.  In 
the  wide  fields  of  science,  learning,  and  art  how 
many  great  services — not  the  less  great  because  the 
multitude  does  not  apprehend  their  full  importance 
— have  their  accomplishment  indefinitely  postponed, 
simply  for  the  want  of  a  sum  which  one  rich  man 
could  easily  provide  from  his  annual  income.  The 
desire  of  personal  eminence  having  grown  with  the 
diffusion  of  wealth,  it  certainly  appears  singular  that 
no  aspirants  are  found  for  distinction  of  a  kind  which 
would  be  really  distinguished,  and  as  nearly  exempt 
from  sneers  as  any  distinction  can  reasonably  expect 
to  be.  A  man  who  gave  ^20,000  to  found  a  British 
School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens  would  have 
secured  a  place  of  unique  honour  in  the  regard  of  all 
for  whom  the  study  of  the  past  has  anywhere  a  charm 
or  a  meaning,  and  would  have  perpetuated  his  name, 
both  at  home  and  in  Greece,  by  a  living  monument 
of  the  most  splendid  and  enduring  kind." 


248  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1883 

This  article  in  the  Fortnightly  met  with  an  im- 
mediate response  from  many  whose  approval  was 
of  the  highest  value.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was 
interested  in  the  School,  and  expressed  his  willingness 
to  preside  at  a  meeting  to  be  held  at  Marlborough 
House  to  discuss  measures  for  its  establishment. 
Professor  J  ebb  was  granted  an  interview  with  His 
Royal  Highness,  when  the  resolutions  he  had  drawn 
up  were  approved,  together  with  the  names  of  those 
selected  to  propose  and  second  them.  The  meeting, 
held  on  the  25th  of  June,  was  singularly  successful, 
and  the  scheme  was  started  with  a  list  of  subscrip- 
tions amounting  to  over  ^4000.  But  a  sum  more 
like  ;^20,ooo  was  needed,  and  Professor  Jebb  and 
Mr  Escott  were  appointed  Honorary  Secretaries,  on 
whom  devolved  the  task  of  appealing  for  individual 
subscriptions. 

To  HIS  Mother. 

''July  2Sth,  1883 

This  is  a  little  good-morning  from  your  son.  I 
have  been  very  busy  for  the  last  two  days,  writing 
a  paper  for  the  Hellenic  Society's  Journal,  and  at- 
tending to  divers  matters  about  the  British  School 
at  Athens.  This  morning's  post  brought  me  good 
news.  A  despatch  from  the  Greek  Government  has 
been  received  at  the  Foreign  Office  in  London  saying 
that  they  will  give  us  the  best  site  at  their  disposal 
for  our  school.  Now  I  must  go  to  town  for  another 
meeting  concerning  it.     You  will  think  that   I   do 


1883]  British  School  at  Athens  249 

nothing  else ;  but  all  this  fuss  is  only  at  starting  the 
project,  and  I  have  to  do  most  of  the  work." 

To  HIS  Mother. 

''July  26ih,  1883. 

I  got  back  to  Cambridge  by  the  last  train  yester- 
day, and  felt  well  satisfied  with  my  day  in  London. 
This  morning  I  had  a  note  from  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  promising  a  handsome  subscription  to 
the  School.  He  is  the  Chancellor  of  Cambridge 
University  and  on  that  account  I  am  particularly 
glad  that  he  has  subscribed.  I  do  not  much  like 
begging  even  for  such  an  object  as  this,  but  as 
Honorary  Secretary  I  can  do  it  more  easily. 

I  am  looking  forward  so,  my  darling,  to  being 
with  you  next  week.  When  I  come  over,  I  hope  to 
see  Tyrrell  about  the  School." 

Not  many  more  letters  were  to  be  written  to  his 
mother.  She  had  long  been  in  failing  health,  but 
her  death  was  no  less  a  bitter  blow  to  her  children. 
She  died  on  October  25,  1883,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two.      Her  whole  family  were  with  her  at  the  last. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

VISIT  TO  AMERICA.  PROFESSOR  FAWCETT.  DEATH 
OF  MR  ROBERT  JEBB.  ROYAL  ACADEMY.  ODE 
TO  BOLOGNA.  RESIGNATION  OF  GREEK  CHAIR 
IN  GLASGOW. 

1883— 1889. 

Oedipus  Tyrannus,  the  first  volume  of  his  large 
edition  of  Sophocles,  was  published  in  December, 
1883,  and  at  once  took  its  place  as  a  book  indis- 
pensable to  any  serious  student  of  Greek  literature. 
Its  rapid  sale  was  a  sign  that  the  Schools  and 
Universities  gave  it  their  approval. 

Dr  H.  A.  J.   Munro  wrote  of  the  book  : — 

"There  is  a  most  lively  interest  taken  in  it  here  both 
by  young  and  old.  Whatever  your  enemies  may  say  or 
do,  they  will  not  make  anything  of  yours  'fall  dead.' 
I  look  on  this  book  as  the  most  important  contribution 
to  Greek  scholarship  that  has  appeared  in  England  for 
many  years." 

Dr  Jowett,  Master  of  Balliol,  wrote  : — 

"You  have  the  advantage  over  X  in  perfect  clearness 
and  grammatical  accuracy  ;  these  are  qualities  that  are 
everywhere  appreciated.  You  may  regard  yourself  as 
almost  at  the  beginning  of  a  scholar's  life,  having  great 
Works  in  prospect,  and    unbounded  influence   over  your 


1884]  Oedipus   Tyrannus  251 

pupils.  You  may  do  more  for  Greek  Scholarship  than 
anyone  has  done  since  Porson I  hear  the  tutors  com- 
plaining that  it  will  be  no  use  lecturing  on  Oedipus 
Tyrannus  any  more." 

Certainly  Professor  J  ebb  was  very  happy  in 
his  friends.  From  all  sides  came  affectionate  and 
encouraging  letters,  ** worth,"  as  he  said,  ''any  number 
of  panegyrics  or  invectives  in  newspapers." 

It  was  a  great  thing  to  get  this  piece  of  serious 
work  off  his  hands  before  the  labours  of  the  next 
Glasgow  session  began ;  though  he  had  the  interests 
of  classics  too  much  at  heart  ever  wholly  to  lay 
aside  the  pen,  even  when  wearied  and  jaded  by 
heavy  routine  work.  This  autumn  his  spare  moments 
were  occupied  in  making  a  translation  of  Ajax  for 
the  performance  in  Greek — the  first  of  a  long  and 
successful  series — which  was  to  take  place  in  Cam- 
bridge. 

To  Mrs  Arthur  J  ebb. 

^'■February  ^rd^   1884. 

The  only  interesting  fact  I  have  to  tell  you  this 
week  is  that  we  have  decided  to  go  to  America  in 
June  next,  and  to  stay  there  about  seven  weeks. 
I  have  been  asked  to  give  an  address  to  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  Society  at  Harvard.  It  is  a  pity  to  miss 
so  good  an  opportunity  of  visiting  America  while 
one  is  still  in  the  prime  of  life.  Then  C.  wanted 
very  much  to  go.  I  was  unwilling  to  lose  a  summer's 
work,  but  on  the  whole  it  seemed  best  to  accept  the 
proposal ;  and  now  that  it  is  settled,  I  am  glad  of  it. 


252  Sir  Richard  Jebb  [1884 

I  have  a  secret  to  tell  you,  but  it  is  a  real  secret 
for  the  present.  C.  s  eldest  niece,  Maud  du  Puy,  is 
engaged  to  be  married  to  Professor  George  Darwin, 

the  very  distinguished  son  of  Charles  Darwin 

They  are  to  live  at  Cambridge,  which  will  be  very 
pleasant  for  C." 

In  the  spring  of  1884  he  was  elected  cor- 
responding member  of  the  German  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  which  honour,  coming  so  soon  after 
the  publication  of  his  article  on  Homeric  Troy  in 
the  Fortnightly ,  gave  him  particular  pleasure.  When 
the  Glasgow  session  was  ended,  we  hastened  back 
to  Cambridge  in  order  that  he  might  be  present  at 
the  opening  of  the  new  museum  of  Archaeology 
there — the  existence  of  which  was  mainly  owing  to 
the  efforts  of  his  friend,  Mr  Sidney  Colvin.  Then 
on  June  2nd  we  started  for  America.  How  happy 
he  was  at  the  prospect  of  such  a  splendid  holiday ! 
To  get  off  was  always  a  struggle  ;  such  a  grand 
clearing  up  of  papers,  such  hurried  answering  of 
belated  correspondence,  and  correcting  of  last  proofs ; 
but  everything  was  thrown  off  his  mind,  once  the 
door  of  the  railway  carriage  closed  on  us.  Every 
device  known  to  man  was  employed  to  secure  the 
carriage  to  ourselves.  I  can  still  see  the  air  of 
whimsical  triumph  with  which  he  would  settle  back 
in  his  seat  when  successful  and  out  of  danger,  with 
the  train  really  moving.  Of  course  stacks  of  news- 
papers were  bought,  but  he  read  them  very  little. 
Too  many  things  kept  crowding  into  his  mind  to 


1884]  Visit  to  America  253 

say,  now  that  at  last  the  tension  of  hard  work  was 
removed.  Never  quite  the  things  other  people  would 
say — always  the  outcome  of  a  quaint  originality  and 
delightful  to  his  hearer. 

The  voyage  to  America  in  perfect  June  weather 
was  a  pleasure  trip  in  itself.  Mr  George  Darwin 
was  with  us,  going  over  to  be  married  to  our  niece. 
Professor  J  ebb  loved  the  sea,  was  an  excellent  sailor, 
and  enjoyed  the  little  events  that  make  up  life  on 
board  ship — the  sighting  of  a  whale,  the  play  of  the 
porpoises,  the  ship's  daily  run.  It  was  much  to  get 
farther  away  with  every  mile  from  work  and  worry  ; 
and  when  a  man  is  overworked  and  run  down  he 
has  a  great  power  of  doing  nothing  without  being 
bored.  His  essay  for  Harvard  was  already  printed 
and  neatly  packed  away  in  his  box  in  the  hold — not 
to  be  looked  at  again  until  he  stood  at  the  desk  in 
the  Senate-room  at  Harvard.  This  was  his  first 
engagement  on  our  arrival  in  America;  so  after  a 
mere  glimpse  of  his  wife's  family  in  Philadelphia  we 
went  to  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  to  fulfil  it.  Com- 
mencement week  at  Harvard  could  not  fail  to  be 
full  of  interest,  if  only  for  the  opportunity  it  gave  to 
meet  so  many  distinguished  men,  living  there,  or 
gathered  there  for  the  occasion.  His  speech — the 
subject  was  Some  Ancient  Organs  of  Public  Opinion 
— was  very  well  received  and  kindly  noticed  in  the 
newspapers  ;  he  was  given  the  Harvard  Honorary 
LL.D.  degree  the  next  day  and,  after  those  functions 
were  over,  could  resign  himself  to  the  pleasures  of 
social  intercourse.     We  saw  the  greatest  architect 


254  "^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1884 

of  his  time,  Mr  Richardson,  in  his  own  studio  ;  we 
heard  the  great  preacher,  Mr  Phillips  Brooks,  in 
his  own  pulpit ;  we  met  many  authors  whose  works 
were  already  familiar  to  us.  When  the  week  was 
over,  we  went  with  Professor  and  Mrs  Goodwin  to 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  where  for  a  few  days  we  were 
the  guests  of  Miss  Mason,  one  of  its  most  charming 
hostesses.  Then  other  friends  carried  him  off  to 
I  know  not  what  meetings  and  yachting  trips,  visits 
to  Bar  Harbour,  to  the  White  Mountains,  to  the 
Adirondacks,  while  I  went  to  my  mother  in  Erie, 
Pennsylvania.  He  joined  me  there  on  the  21st  of 
July  to  be  present  at  the  event  which  brought  all 
the  members  of  my  family  together,  the  marriage 
of  George  Darwin  to  my  niece,  on  July  22nd. 

He  was  full  of  his  late  experiences,  how  he  had 
seen  the  sunrise  on  Mt  Washington,  had  driven 
on  a  "  buckboard "  here  and  there,  to  Otter  Cliff, 
Schooner  Head,  Porcupine  Islands,  Puffing  Hole — 
the  names  were  a  great  joy  to  him — had  seen  from  a 
mountain  top  the  contour  of  the  island  of  Mt  Desert 
with  a  wide  view  of  the  mainland ;  had  above  all 
made  many  friends  among  his  delightful  travelling 
companions.  Nobody  is  ever  shy  with  Americans; 
and,  when  he  was  not  shy,  his  real  affectionateness 
of  disposition,  his  absence  of  self-assertion,  his  quick 
response  to  little  kindnesses,  the  readiness  with 
which  he  met  friendliness  by  friendliness — perhaps 
also  the  fact  that  he  never  blundered  socially  or 
made  awkward  remarks,  his  own  sensitiveness 
making  his  instinct  very  sure  concerning  the  sen- 


1884]  Return  from  America  255 

sitiveness  of  others — made  strangers  quickly  feel 
at  home  with  him,  many  of  them  like  him,  and  not 
a  few  love  him. 

After  some  stay  in  Erie,  he  went  with  my 
brother  to  Niagara,  and  later  started  on  a  longer 
tour  through  the  Lakes  with  my  nephew  William 
Spencer.  His  diary  is  crammed  with  notes  in  finest 
handwriting  which  show  how  much  he  was  in- 
terested in  experiences  so  new  to  him.  There  is 
even  a  glossary  at  the  end  of  American  words  and 
phrases. 

But  tout  passe.  On  September  6th  we  were 
again  on  board  The  Britannic  with  our  thoughts 
now  all  turning  towards  home. 

To  HIS  Father. 

"R.  M.S.  Britannic, 
170  Miles  off  Queenstown. 

Here  we  are  again  close  to  Queenstown  where 
we  shall  arrive  about  4  a.m.  to-morrow.  I  ought 
to  have  written  to  you  long  ago,  but  was  in  such 
a  hurry  of  engagements  in  America  to  the  last  day, 
that  I  did  not.  We  meant  to  sail  on  August  28th, 
but  C.  wished  to  wait  another  week,  and  I  agreed. 
C.  and  I  are  both  flourishing  and  have  had  a 
thoroughly  enjoyable  time — she  calls  it  *a  good 
time.'  I  travelled  about  six  thousand  miles  in 
America  and  made  the  tour  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
starting  from  Erie.  I  have  been  in  twenty  States 
in  the  Union  and  bring  many  pleasant  memories 
back.     Even  at  the  very  last  we  had   a  delightful 


256  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1884 

week  with  friends  on  Shelter  Island  which  I  shall 
not  soon  forget.     I  never  enjoyed  a  holiday  more." 

The  holiday  had  been  quite  long  enough  ;  and 
J  ebb  was  eager  to  be  at  work  again.  An  article 
on  Pindar  for  the  Encyclopaedia  was  promised  for 
October ;  the  Hellenic  Society  Council  and  the 
British  School  at  Athens  were  awaiting  his  return 
to  hold  their  first  autumn  meetings ;  letters  had 
been  accumulating  for  three  months  which  it  would 
take  time  to  answer ;  and,  nearest  of  all  to  his 
thoughts,  the  old  father  in  Ireland  must  see  his  son. 
He  spent  the  anniversary  of  his  mother's  death  at 
Desmond,  writing  a  life  of  Bentley  for  the  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography  while  there. 

Hardly  had  the  session  begun  in  Glasgow  when 
news  came  that  Professor  Fawcett  was  dead.  It 
was  a  great  shock.  He  had  been  elected  Lord 
Rector  of  the  University  and  was  to  have  given  his 
rectorial  address  in  December — he  and  Mrs  Fawcett 
were  to  have  been  our  guests  for  the  occasion. 
J  ebb,  who  had  known  him  well  since  undergraduate 
days,  and  greatly  admired  his  remarkable  person- 
ality, found  it  almost  impossible  to  realise  that  all 
that  force  and  energy  were  no  more. 

On  December  9th  J  ebb  was  unanimously  chosen 
to  be  President  of  the  Glasgow  Dialectic  Society, 
in  succession  to  Dr  Lushington.  This  election  was 
gratifying  to  him  as  another  sign  that  the  work  he 
was  doing  for  them  was  appreciated  by  the  students. 
''  I  have  done  my  best,"  he  wrote  in  the  early  days 


1884]  His  Judgment  257 

of  his  Glasgow  teaching.  I  think  these  words  are 
the  key  to  the  value  of  much  that  he  did  in  life. 
When  he  put  down  the  pen  after  writing  the  last 
lines  of  his  commentary  on  the  Oedipus  Coloneus, 
he  said  to  me  : — "Well,  good  or  bad,  it  is  the  best 
that  I  can  do."  He  was  compelled,  alas,  often  to 
^ay,  on  finishing  some  speech  or  essay,  *'  I  could 
have  made  it  better,  if  I  had  had  more  time  "  ;  but 
he  did  his  best  whenever  it  was  possible.  He 
always  said  that  he  thought  slowly.  However  this 
may  be — and  perhaps  the  soberness  and  correctness 
of  his  judgment  arose  from  this  deliberation — once 
the  judgment  was  reached  he  acted  with  force  and 
decision.  And  how  often  time  has  verified  that 
judgment.  To  recall  only  one  case  in  College  affairs, 
a  step  was  to  be  taken  which  not  only  involved 
large  financial  responsibilities,  but,  once  taken,  could 
not  be  retraced.  He  spoke  very  strongly  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Fellows,  but  the  majority  were 
against  him.  At  a  later  meeting  this  majority, 
considering  how  small  it  was,  decided  not  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  scheme.  One  of  its  members  came 
to  him  while  he  was  sitting  sorrowful  at  home — 
for  he  loved  Trinity  and  he  believed  this  step  would 
be  a  great  injury  to  her — and  told  him  that  it  was 
his  speech  and  appeal  that  decided  them  not  to 
proceed.  The  scheme  has  never  been  revived,  and 
I  think  the  soberer  judgment  of  the  College  has 
come  round  to  his  view. 

How  anxious  he  was  to  do  his  best,  and  how 
conscientious   even   when   small   points    were   con- 

J.  M.  17 


258  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1884 

cerned,  this  letter  on  a  point  in  scholarship  illustrates. 
That  it  was  written  somewhat  later  does  not  affect 
its  significance  in  this  respect. 

To  Mr  Adam,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Emmanuel  College. 

"2  Whitehall  Court, 
London,  S.W., 

May  3/-^   1902. 
Dear  Mr  Adam, 

I  have  given  my  best  thoughts  to  the 
6  8ia  iravToiv  problem,  and  I  am  now  satisfied  that 
the  solution  which  I  first  suggested  is  untenable. 
Therefore  I  should  not  like  it  to  appear,  and  I 
must,  with  regret,  ask  you  to  delete  it.  As  you 
know,  I  did  not,  when  I  first  sent  it,  contemplate 
its  being  printed.  It  is  one  of  those  cases  in  which 
some  quiet  and  sustained  reflection  is  necessary  (for 
me,  at  any  rate) ;  and  the  circumstances  precluded 
me  from  that. 

I  regret  the  delay  and  trouble  to  you  ;  and  I 
venture  to  make  a  proposal  to  which  I  trust  you 
will  not  object.  It  is  that  you  will  allow  me  to 
defray  the  cost  of  setting  up  in  type,  and  removing, 
my  abortive  suggestion.  I  should  not  feel  quite 
happy  on  any  other  condition. 

I  enclose  my  Sevrcpai  ^povr&e^.  By  these  I  am 
prepared  to  abide, — as  a  contribution  to  the  dis- 
cussion. 

In  case  you  wish  to  print  these  they  are  at  your 
service.  But  I  can  very  easily  understand  that  you 
do  not  wish  to  incur  further  delay. 


1885]  Dinner  at  Royal  Academy  259 

May  I  just  add  that  the  point  in  your  own 
explanation  which  does  not  quite  satisfy  me  is  your 
analysis  of  6  Sta  irdvTOiv  dycov?  (I  live,  of  course, 
in  a  glass  house ;  but  one  should  say  what  one  feels.) 
'to  Sid  nao-cov  is  the  interval  between  the  lowest  note 
of  the  octave  and  the  highest:  '' ih^  greatest  in- 
terval in  the  scale  of  one  octave."  So  6  8ta  irdvTOiv 
dyoiv  is  **  [the  last  and]  greatest  dyoivT '  Might  it 
not  be  said  that,  on  this  view,  the  sense  should 
be  rather,  '  the  dyo^v  which  includes  all  the  com- 
petitors,' as  TO  8ta  iraa-i^v  is  the  range  which  includes 
all  the  notes  of  the  octave  ? 

I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  this  small 
but  curious  question. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

R.  C.  Jebb." 

In  March,  1885,  another  of  the  tall  cedars  fell. 
Dr  H.  A.  J.  Munro  died  in  Rome,  aged  sixty-six, 
after  a  short  illness.  Jebb  could  hardly  realise  Trinity 
without  that  great-hearted  man,  whose  sympathy 
and  encouragement  had  never  failed  him  through 
all  their  years  of  friendship,  from  his  first  coming 
up  as  an  undergraduate. 

Just  before  the  end  of  the  session  a  letter  came 
from  Sir  Frederic  Leigh  ton  asking  Jebb  to  respond 
for  Literature  at  the  coming  Royal  Academy  dinner. 
Any  new  experience  pleased  him  and  this  was  the 
first  time  his  presence  had  been  requested  at  that 
function.  The  speech  he  made  was  very  short- 
ly— 2 


26o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1885 

he  said  (to  me,  not  to  them)  that  it  was  not  for  the 
Hkes  of  him  to  take  up  the  time  of  an  assembly  who 
had  been  listening  for  hours  to  princes  and  cabinet 
ministers, — but  was  spoken  of  in  the  newspapers  as 
a  model  of  its  kind. 

To  HIS  Sister. 

''May  zrd,  1885. 

I  was  at  the  Royal  Academy  dinner  last  night. 
To  a  rustic  like  myself,  it  was  a  very  interesting 
glimpse  of  the  great  world,  for  it  was  really  a  com- 
plete view  in  miniature  of  male  London  Society. 
Colvin  and  the  waiters  and  I  were  almost  the  only 
people  who  had  not  ribbons  or  collars  or  stars  of 
some  sort.  The  pleasantest  part  of  the  affair  was 
walking  about  the  galleries  after  dinner  and  seeing 
the  pictures  with  ample  space — and  with  permission 
to  smoke — which  however  I  forbore  to  use.  Lord 
Granville  made  the  occasion  especially  remarkable 
by  giving  us  to  understand  there  was  going  to  be 
peace. 

P.S.  I  was  rather  bothered  with  rheumatism  in 
the  neck,  which  is  the  direct  result  of  poring  over 
books  :  a  curious  punishment  of  study." 

We  went  as  usual  at  the  end  of  May  to  stay  for  a 
week-end  with  Dr  Jowett  at  Balliol.  A  fellow-guest 
was  that  remarkable  man  and  Christian,  Dr  Phillips 
Brooks  of  Massachusetts  (afterwards  Bishop).  We 
persuaded  him  to  stay  a  day  or  two  with  us  when  he 


1885]  Death  of  Mr  Robert  Jebb  261 

came  to  Cambridge  (he  was  to  preach  there  the  next 
Sunday)  and  to  go  with  us  to  the  boat  races  on 
Saturday.  He  was  a  giant,  and  his  presence  in  the 
boat  was  to  our  rowers  as  if  we  had  shipped  a  whale, 
but  inspired  by  his  noble  head  and  the  remarkable 
outlook  of  his  fine  eyes,  they  carried  us  safely 
through.  No  undergraduate  could  have  been  more 
interested  in  the  race,  or  more  amused  by  the 
**  scrimmage "  on  the  return,  than  was  that  great 
light  of  the  American  Church. 

Two  more  friends  dear  to  Jebb  were  called  to 
join  the  majority  this  summer,  Mr  E.  W.  Blore 
of  Trinity  who  died  on  June  26th,  and  Mr  Brad- 
shaw  of  King's.  And  then  came  a  greater  loss  to 
us.  His  father  died  in  August  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
seven.  The  world  began  to  feel  empty.  His  friend 
Professor  Tyrrell  wrote  : — 

"  I  deeply  feel  for  you,  for  I  can  well  understand  what  a 
loss  you  have  sustained  in  him.  To  me  personally  it  is  a 
sad  thought  that  I  shall  never  again  feel  the  charm  of  that 
kindly  welcome  which  he  always  extended  to  me  as  a 
friend  of  yours.  In  him  has  passed  away  a  representative 
type  of  Irish  gentleman  which  I  am  sorry  to  say  is  be- 
coming rarer  and  rarer." 

It  was  well  for  his  son  that  another  home  had 
grown  into  his  affections,  for  he  felt  the  breaking-up 
at  Desmond  keenly.  Work  was  the  best  corrective 
to  sad  thoughts.  After  finishing  an  article  on  Rhe- 
toric for  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  he  turned  to 
the  Oedipus  Coloneus,  which  was  finished  and  in  the 


262  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1885 

printers'  hands  in  October  1885,  though  it  was  not 
published  till  some  months  later. 

Dr  Verrall  in  an  interesting  review  wrote  : — 

"  Upon  the  appearance  of  the  Oedipus  Tyrannus  we 
spoke  of  this  edition  as  definitive  in  the  only  applicable 
sense,  as  making  a  distinct  advance  and  bringing  materials 
which  all  future  students  would  be  careful  to  adopt.  After 
reading  the  Oedipus  Coloneus  we  are  inclined  to  say  that 
this  praise  was  put  too  low.  A  classic  like  Sophocles  will 
be  read  by  each  generation  from  their  own  point  of  view 
and  illustrated  by  their  own  lights ;  but  though  there 
cannot  be  a  final  interpretation  of  such  a  work,  there  can 
be,  for  a  particular  language,  a  permanent  basis  of  inter- 
pretation ;  and  such  we  think  Professor  Jebb  will  be  found 
to  have  furnished  to  the  English  students  and  expositors 
of  Sophocles." 

A  second  edition  of  the  Oedipus  Tyrannus  was 
next  taken  in  hand;  and  in  January  1887  he 
brought  out  a  little  book  called  Introduction  to 
Homer,  which  he  wrote  feeling  the  need  of  such  a 
book  in  his  junior  class.  The  price  was  I  think  half 
what  was  usual  for  a  school-book  of  the  kind.  The 
first  edition  of  1500  copies  was  exhausted  in  a 
month,  and  many  editions  have  since  been  issued. 

The  letters  to  his  sister  are  almost  always  in  the 
playful  vein  adopted  in  their  young  days,  when  life 
was  play.  She  had  been  staying  with  us,  had  given 
him  some  letters  to  post,  and  wondered  much  at 
receiving  no  answers. 


1887]  British  School  at  Athens  263 

To  HIS  Sister. 

"  Springfield, 

June  \Zth,   1887. 

There  was  once  a  thoughtful,  careworn  man,  who 
went  to  see  his  sister  and  her  maid  off  by  the  train. 
They  were  going  to  a  junction  on  the  L.N.W.R. 
Just  as  the  train  was  starting,  his  sister  gave  him 
two  letters  to  post.     He  did  post  them.     But  did  he 

do  it  immediately  1 Or  did  some  time  elapse? 

One  of  them  was  to  Lady  M.  Feilding,  the  other  to 
Emily  Gilmore.  They  have,  ages  ago,  been  posted. 
But  I  ask  once  more — were  they  posted  immediately.-* 
That  man,  on  a  certain  day,  at  a  certain  hour,  was 
observed  in  a  state  bordering  on  distraction.  He 
had  been  looking  in  his  coat  pocket 

Such  a  thing-  (in  spite  of  what  his  wife  may  say) 

had    never  happened  to    him    before or  hardly 

ever.  But  the  fact  was  that  he  had  looked  in  at  the 
Pitt  Press,  and  his  mind  had  been  strongly  pre- 
occupied  What  happened  to  this  man,  and  what 

was  the  nature  of  the  relations  which  subsequently 
subsisted  between  him  and  his  sister,  shall  be  told  in 
our  next  number " 

In  July  1887  the  British  School  at  Athens,  now 
with  a  roof  over  its  head  and  money  enough  for 
bread  and  butter,  and  even  a  little  jam  in  the  shape 
of  a  library,  held  its  first  annual  meeting,  with 
Lord  Carnarvon  in  the  chair.  It  was  a  great  satis- 
faction to  J  ebb  that  this  institution  was  at  last  fairly 
started. 


264  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1888 

In  his  later  years  J  ebb  was  to  be  much  occupied 
with,  the  two  subjects  of  politics  and  education  ;  and 
in  January  1888  he  made  a  start  in  both  directions — 
on  the  9th,  when  he  attended  a  big  political  meeting 
in  Glasgow  and  proposed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Sir 
Henry  James  who  was  the  chief  speaker  of  the 
evening;  and  on  the  17th,  when  he  addressed  the 
West  of  Scotland  Teachers'  Guild. 

The  unsettled  state  of  Ireland  made  him  anxious. 
All  his  letters  to  his  brother  at  this  time  are  filled 
with  suggestions  looking  towards  her  pacification, 
and  with  fears  of  the  possible  outcome  of  English 
short-sightedness.  He  spoke  often  at  Liberal 
Unionist  meetings  during  the  winter. 

To  Professor  Jebb. 

^^ January  zd^th,   1888. 
My  Dear  Sir, 

We  are  having  a  political  meeting  in  East 
Kilbride  on  Friday  evening  the  3rd  of  February.  Hozier, 
the  Member  for  South  Lanarkshire,  is  to  be  present  and 
speak,  and  I  am  requested  by  the  promoters  to  ask  you  to 
honour  us  with  your  company. 

I  need  not  say  how  very  much  obliged  we  should  be  if 
you  will  come  and  speak.  A  speech  from  you  would,  I 
know,  having  heard  your  eloquent  words  at  the  Imperial 
Union  Club  dinner,  do  us  a  great  deal  of  good. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Walter  C.  Clark." 

His  friends  in  Ireland  sent  him  many  cases  of 
outrages,  some  of  which  he  used  in  his  speeches  and 
which  were  afterwards  widely  quoted. 


1 888]  Bologna  Festival  265 

From  the  late  Duke  of  Argyll. 

"  Inverary, 

February  \th^   1888. 

I  have  to  speak  at  Cambridge  next  month  and  I  am 
anxious  to  have  any  fresh  cases  to  give  of  the  perfect  harm- 
lessness  of  the  Land  League  as  asserted  by  Lord  Spencer. 
He  says  that  crime  did  once  '  dog  the  steps '  of  the  League — 
but  it  doesn't  now.  Anything  more  outrageous  in  the  way 
of  assertion  I  have  not  seen.  Some  cases  you  mentioned 
in  your  speech  last  year  I  made  good  use  of, — can  you 
supply  me  with  any  more?  Of  course  I  shall  suppress 
names.     Of  course  the  cases  are  legion. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Argyll." 

In  February  he  v^as  appointed  one  of  the  dele- 
gates from  Glasgow  University  to  the  University  of 
Bologna  which  was  about  to  celebrate  its  Sooth 
anniversary  in  June.  In  his  daily  walks  he  com- 
posed an  Ode  in  Greek  in  honour  of  the  occasion, 
and  was  rather  surprised  to  realise  later  the  impres- 
sion made  by  this  Ode  both  in  Italy  and  among 
scholars  in  England.  The  composition  of  it  was 
a  pure  pleasure,  taking  him  into  regions  where  his 
mind  delighted  to  dwell,  and  giving  him  a  relief 
from  the  daily  round  at  his  mill. 

To  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Jebb. 

''June   16th,    1888. 

Just  a  line  to  say  that  I  am  all  right.  The 
Bologna  Festival  was  very  brilliant,  though  the 
arrangements  were  by  no  means  perfect  in  detail. 


266  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1888 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  was  among  the 
foreigners  who  received  the  laurea  d'onore  or 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  Only  a  few  of 
the  foreign  delegates  were  honoured.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Bologna  had  intended  to  give  honorary 
degrees  to  all,  but  this  was  vetoed  by  the  Govern- 
ment, for  what  reason  nobody  knows.  Moreover, 
the  Bolognese  University  authorities  were  not  even 
allowed  to  select  the  few  on  whom  they  were  per- 
mitted to  confer  the  degree." 

The  University  of  Dublin  honoured  him  with  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  on  the  28th  of  June,  and 
on  November  23rd,  he  was  elected  an  Honorary 
Fellow  of  his  own  College,  Trinity,  under  the  statute 
which  empowers  the  College  to  elect  any  person 
especially  distinguished  for  literary  or  scientific 
merit.  This  was  an  honour  he  valued  above  all 
others  and  enjoyed  for  the  shortest  time  :  before  the 
new  calendar  was  printed  he  had  become  a  Profes- 
sorial Fellow. 

For  our  life  at  Glasgow  was  now  drawing  to  an 
end.  In  April  the  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  at 
Cambridge,  the  famous  Dr  Kennedy,  died,  full  of 
years  and  honours.  This  time  there  was  no  doubt 
in  Jebb's  mind  as  to  the  course  he  should  take  ;  none 
the  less  the  wrench  would  be  great  in  leaving  Glas- 
gow. We  had  lived  there  fourteen  winters,  had 
been  warmly  welcomed  by  its  people,  had  shared  its 
interests  and  been  given  a  part  in  its  duties.  The 
position  at  Cambridge  was  far  more  favourable  to 
literary  work,  but  he  was  doing  good   service    in 


1889]  Death  of  Dr  Kennedy  267 

Glasgow  which  it  was  hard  to  abandon.  The 
pecuniary  sacrifice  would  be  great ;  but  money 
never  entered  into  his  considerations.  Indeed  to 
take  care  of  it  was  one  of  his  difficulties  all  through 
life.  He  hardly  ever  took  coins  out  of  his  pocket 
without  some  of  them  rolling  away  into  space  where 
search — at  least  his  perfunctory  search — could  not 
find  them.  He  never  knew  how  much  he  had  with 
him,  or  counted  his  change  at  railway  stations,  or 
suspected  anyone  of  taking  advantage  of  his  care- 
lessness. He  seemed  to  have  a  dislike  to  looking 
at  what  he  called  ''symbols,"  and  would  gaze  ab- 
stractedly anywhere  except  at  what  he  was  giving, 
when  paying  porters  or  cabmen.  On  almost  our 
first  railway  journey  together,  an  honest  porter  ran 
after  him  at  the  Dublin  station  :  ''  I  am  sure,  Sir, 
you  did  not  mean  to  give  me  this,"  he  said,  showing 
a  sovereign.  It  filled  him  with  a  sort  of  disgust 
when  less  high-minded  people — his  wife  to  wit — 
assumed  the  existence  of  dishonesty,  and  begged 
him  to  keep  his  keys  in  his  pocket,  and  not  to 
put  his  purse  in  the  most  conspicuous  place  on 
his  dressing-table  when  travelling.  It  is  hard  for 
experience  to  overcome  nature.  Once  at  Athens, 
when  starting  on  an  expedition,  he  left  his  port- 
manteau to  be  packed  by  the  hotel  servant,  with 
directions  to  send  it  after  him.  In  the  portmanteau 
was  a  copy  of  his  Attic  Orators,  intended  as  a 
present  to  a  Greek  friend  whose  name  he  had 
written  on  the  fly-leaf.  This  the  patriotic  porter 
duly  delivered,   but   it   was    the    only  part   of  the 


268  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [] 

contents  of  the  portmanteau    Professor  J  ebb   ever 
heard  of  again. 

Glasgow  was  reluctant  to  let  him  go. 

From  Principal  Caird. 

''May  ist,    1889. 
My  Dear  Jebb, 

Will  you  forgive  me  for  saying  one  word  more 
before  you  go  ?  It  may  not  count  for  much,  but  I  am 
persuaded  I  say  what  many  others  feel,  when  I  tell  you 
that  I  for  one  shall  be  very  much  grieved  if  the  result  of 
your  deliberations  be  that  you  are  to  leave  us.  I  know 
that  you  are  doing  noble  work  for  us  and  for  the  higher 
education  in  Scotland,  and  (forgive  me  for  saying  so)  that 
you  are  precisely  the  sort  of  man  who  can  do  it.  I  am 
sure  you  won't  think  me  capable  of  coarse  flattery,  but  I 
feel  so  deeply  interested  in  this  matter  that  I  shall  not 
refrain  from  saying  that  with  your  rare  combination  of 
solid  and  comprehensive  learning  with  brilliant  literary 
faculty  and  the  true  artist's  enthusiasm  for  his  subject,  you 
can  do  more  for  this  University  and  for  the  advancement 
of  classical  learning  in  Scotland  than  any  other  man  I 
know.  Be  assured  that,  if  you  make  up  your  mind  to  stay 
with  us,  you  have  before  you  a  career  which  is  worthy  of 
your  ambition.  On  the  other  hand,  though  I  think  your 
withdrawal  would  be  quite  intelligible,  yet  may  I  not  take 
the  liberty  of  suggesting  that,  other  things  being  equal,  it 
is  always  better  to  go  on  with  a  work  one  has  undertaken, 
whatever  the  apparent  obstacles,  than  to  draw  back  ? 

Yours  ever, 

J.  Caird." 

The  wide  recognition  of  the  value  of  his  work 
in  Scotland,  though  very  gratifying,  could  not  alter 


1889]  Resignation  of  Glasgow  Chair  269 

his  decision.  It  was  impossible  to  carry  on  literary- 
work  together  with  his  lectures,  and  he  could  not 
do  much  of  the  former,  with  practically  only  four 
months  out  of  twelve  at  his  disposal ; — for  he  must 
come  to  Glasgow  fresh  from  a  holiday  in  the  autumn, 
and  he  must  have  a  month's  rest  when  the  long  six 
months'  task  was  done.  If  a  change  was  to  be 
made,  it  was  well  that  it  should  come  while  he  was 
still  in  the  prime  of  life. 

Returning  to  Cambridge  on  the  15th  of  May, 
after  a  fortnight  at  Brighton,  he  found  his  new  study 
a  great  delight.  "  I  never  before  had  such  a  perfect 
room  to  work  in,"  he  wrote  to  his  brother.  ''Alto- 
gether the  summer  is  beginning  very  pleasantly  for 
us.  To-day  I  have  to  go  to  offer  myself  for  the 
Greek  Professorship  by  appearing  before  the  Council 
of  the  Senate.  They  will  appoint  a  time  for  a  dis- 
course to  be  read  before  them  ;  and  the  election  will 
be  made  at  the  end  of  the  month." 


CHAPTER   XII. 

ELECTED    REGIUS    PROFESSOR    OF    GREEK    AT 
CAMBRIDGE.     REDE  LECTURE.     ELECTION  TO 
PARLIAMENT.     FIRST  SPEECH. 

1889— 1894. 

He  was  elected  to  the  Greek  chair  at  Cam- 
bridge on  the  27th  of  May,  and  shortly  afterwards 
to  a  Professorial  Fellowship  at  Trinity  College. 
The  transfer  of  duties  became  complete  when  his 
resignation  of  the  Glasgow  chair  was  accepted  in 
June.  But  then  came  the  pain  of  parting  with  old 
friends  and  old  interests,  which  was  harder  even  than 
he  had  foreboded.  Who  would  be  his  successor  ? 
The  next  fortnight  was  devoted  to  answering  letters 
from  possible  candidates,  and  to  giving  what  help 
and  information  he  could  to  one  and  another  of  the 
electors  who  consulted  him.  His  pen  was  very 
busy  about  this  time,  for  the  many  letters  of  con- 
gratulations must  also  be  acknowledged  promptly. 
He  was  particularly  pleased  with  one  received  from 
his  old  friend  Dr  Sidgwick.     I  give  his  answer  here. 


C/kl|Bl^iOQE 


riyt^^ 


/JUL   /iirp^^^y  ^  ^s-f^zvy^    /eo^  i^c^. 


^   ^^^'^L^    2^/^  Ar^ 


1889]  Letters  •273 

In  May  he  also  became  President  of  the  Hel- 
lenic Society  in  succession  to  the  Bishop  of 
Durham,  whose  lamented  death  had  made  the  posi- 
tion vacant. 

To  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Jebb. 

"  Cambridge, 

June  16th,    1889. 

I  have  been  for  some  days  in  that  lethargic  state 
to  which  hay-fever  reduces  its  sufferers,  but  am 
making  an  effort  to  settle  down  to  steady  work 
again.  The  very  considerable  number  of  letters  of 
congratulation  really  kept  me  rather  busy  for  several 
days.  I  can  see  that  I  have  chosen  wisely  though  at 
large  cost.  This  is  the  right  place  for  the  second 
half  of  life.  Among  the  Glasgow  letters  that  pleased 
me  most  was  one  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Arch- 
bishop. Indeed  we  both  feel  how  many  true  friends 
we  have  in  Glasgow." 

To  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Jebb. 

"  Brighton, 

October  5//^,    1889. 

We  came  on  here  after  a  very  pleasant  visit  to 
the  Tennysons.  The  poet,  who  was  eighty  in 
August  last,  is  wonderfully  well :  I  had  two  walks 
with  him,  and  he  seems  to  be  as  regular  as  ever  in 
taking  exercise.  He  told  me  of  his  visit  to  Portugal 
about  1859  with  Palgrave.  He  recollects  the  elder 
Hallam  as  having  a  broad  brow  and  large  luminous 

J.  M.  18 


274*  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1890 

eyes — a  contentious  man.  Sydney  Smith  said  of 
him — '  There  is  Hallam,  with  his  mouth  full  of 
cabbage  and  contradiction.'  Tennyson  is  going  to 
bring  out  a  volume  of  poems  next  year.  It  will 
interest  you  to  know  that  one  of  them,  Demeter,  is 
dedicated  to  me  in  three  stanzas  alluding  to  my 
Pindaric  Ode  written  for  Bologna  last  year." 

When  October  came,  we  both  confessed  it  a 
great  relief  not  to  have  to  make  the  usual  move  to 
Scotland.  J  ebb  quickly  fell  into  the  old  ways  of 
work  at  Cambridge,  the  morning  lectures,  the  habit 
of  Syndicate  meetings,  of  scholarship  examinations, 
of  frequent  discussions  about  University  affairs. 
Then  at  the  Christmas  vacation — six  weeks  instead 
of  two — what  a  delightful  change  to  be  able  to  go 
to  Rome  and  Naples,  to  cheat  the  English  winter 
of  its  darkest  month ! 

In  1890  he  was  invited  by  the  Vice-Chancellor 
to  give  the  Rede  lecture  for  this  year.  The  one 
lecture  required  by  the  Trust  is  usually  given  at 
the  time  when  Cambridge  is  most  full  of  visitors. 

Although  the  notice  was  somewhat  short,  no  one 
— certainly  not  J  ebb — could  decline  an  invitation  so 
courteously  and  charmingly  made. 

"Trinity  College, 

May  i)th^    1890. 

My  Dear  Jebb, 

Can  you  possibly  rescue  an  old  friend  from  a 
serious  trouble  and  give  the  University  a  great  delight? 
Can  you  accept  the  Rede  Lectureship  for  next  month,  say 


1 890]  Rede  Lecture  275 

about  June  12th? Of  course  if  I  had  originally  thought 

of  offering  it  this  year  to  a  man  of  your  eminence,  I  should 
have  applied  to  you  before  applying  to  anyone,  but  I 
looked,   not   unnaturally,   outside   Cambridge.     You  shall 

hear  the  whole  story Mr  Lecky's  answer  only  reached 

me  this  afternoon.  Will  you — can  you — take  his  place  ? 
You  must  have  plenty  of  well-digested  matter  which,  when 
put  into  such  form  as  you  can  put  it,  would  delight  as  well 
as  instruct  a  University  audience.  I  venture  to  hope — 
though  with  what  Burke  calls  '  trembling  solicitude  ' — that 
you  may  not  find  it  wholly  impossible  in  the  course  of  a 
month  to  produce  a  work  such  as  your  own  high  conception 
of  work  would  approve. 

Always  affectionately  yours, 

H.  Montagu  Butler." 

The  result  was  an  essay  on  Erasmus  w^hich 
answered  adequately  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
written,  to  judge  by  the  letters  it  elicited.  The 
Vice-Chancellor,  who  never  failed  in  kindness  and 
appreciation,  wrote  : — 

"Trinity  Lodge, 

June  11th,  1890. 
My  Dear  Jebb, 

I  cannot  help  sending  a  few  written  lines  to 
express  my  warm  sense  of  the  value  of  your  lecture,  and 
my  delight  that  your  generous  compliance  with  my  request 
at  that  wretchedly  short  notice  should  have  issued  in 
a  manner  so  triumphant  to  yourself  'I  think  the  very 
best  lecture  I  ever  heard,'  said  Jowett  to  Liddon,  and 
Liddon  was  equally  delighted.  Apart  from  the  admirable 
form  and  style  he  was  so  much  struck  with  the  thorough- 

18—2 


276  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1891 

ness  and  fairness  of  your  work.     I  believe  he  explained  to 

you  that  years  ago  he  himself  made  a  special  study  of 

Erasmus. 

Believe  me, 

Affectionately  always, 

H.  Montagu  Butler." 

At  the  end  of  the  year  a  request  came  to  him 
from  the  President  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
Baltimore,  to  give  the  ''  Percy  Turnbull "  course  of 
lectures  on  Poetry  at  that  University.  Mr  and  Mrs 
Lawrence  Turnbull  had  endowed  a  lectureship  in 
poetry  in  memory  of  their  son  Percy  who  died  in 
1887.  Eight  lectures  were  expected,  but  they  could 
be  given  in  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks,  thus  falling 
easily  into  the  period  of  the  Cambridge  Easter 
vacation.  J  ebb  was  much  attached  to  America  and 
It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  him  to  meet  old  friends 
and  make  new  ones  across  the  Atlantic,  so  the  In- 
vitation was  willingly  accepted.  The  events  of  1891 
put  the  engagement  In  jeopardy  but  fortunately  did 
not  compel  him  to  break  It. 

In  April  1891  he  received  an  Honorary  degree 
from  Glasgow  University,  and  In  June  Oxford  con- 
ferred upon  him  her  Honorary  D.C.L.  In  company 
with  a  group  of  very  distinguished  men  ;  an  honour 
highly  valued.  It  seemed  now  as  If  no  new  distinc- 
tion remained  for  him  ;  that  he  might  for  the  rest  of 
his  life  devote  himself  to  work  ;  write  books ;  give 
addresses  on  education  and  scholastic  subjects  ;  take 
his  share  In  University  business  and  peacefully  grow 
old.      But  fortune  had  still  other  offerings  In  store. 


1 8  9 1  ]  Parliament  277 

We  were  sitting  quietly  at  breakfast  one  morn- 
ing at  the  Lyth — his  sister's  home  in  Shropshire — ■ 
when  the  post  brought  him  in  a  letter,  a  veritable 
bolt  from  the  blue.  He  looked  thoughtful  but  said 
nothing  till  breakfast  was  over,  when  he  asked  his 
wife  to  come  out  on  the  terrace.  It  was  one  of  the 
many  little  rules  he  made  for  himself  that  she  must 
always  be  told  first  anything  that  concerned  him. 
'*  I  want  to  consult  you  "  was  a  phrase  very  familiar 
to  her  ears ;  frequently  changed  to  **  I  want  to 
consult  my  government,*'  when  it  was  a  question 
of  subscriptions  or  funds  to  be  provided  for  any 
purpose. 

It  was  now  a  question  of  a  new  departure  which 
would  greatly  interfere  with  literary  work. 

From  THE  Master  of  Corpus  Christi  College. 

"The  Lodge, 

September  ^th^   1891. 

Dear  Professor  Jebb, 

The  subject  of  this  note  is  one  on  which  I  wish 
that  I  could  have  spoken  to  you,  as  I  could  have  entered 
on  it  more  fully  in  conversation  than  I  can  in  writing. 
But  time  is  of  importance  and  I  therefore  venture  to  trouble 
you  with  a  letter. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  vacancy  in  the  representation 
of  the  University,  caused  by  the  death  of  Mr  Raikes,  will 
be  filled  up  as  soon  as  term  begins,  if  not  sooner ;  and  it  is 
highly  desirable  that  we  should  be  prepared  with  a  candi- 
date when  the  Writ  is  issued.  It  is  customary  for  a  meet- 
ing of  residents  to  be  held  for  considering  the  claims  of 
persons  eligible  for  the  seat,  with  a  view  of  selecting  one 


278  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1891 

whose  name  shall  be  submitted  to  the  constituency.  At 
such  a  meeting  it  is  of  course  competent  for  anyone  present 
to  mention  the  name  of  any  possible  candidate. 

Now,  I  have  long  felt  that  it  may  be  desirable  for  us  to 
have  as  representative  of  this  University  men  whose  claims 
are  not  political  but  academical,  not  men  who  already 
represent  (or  might  represent)  constituencies  of  another 
kind,  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  life  and  needs  of  the 
University,  and  whose  election  by  us  might  be  used  as  an 
argument  for  disfranchising  the  Universities.  May  I  say 
that  among  possible  candidates  of  this  kind  you  have 
seemed  to  me  likely  to  be  acceptable  to  our  constituency 
if  you  consent  to  be  brought  forward.  The  suggestion  has 
been  favourably  entertained  by  several  influential  residents 
to  whom  it  was  made  in  a  private  conversation.  It  seems 
that  steps  must  be  taken  at  once  to  find  a  candidate  for 
the  present  vacancy,  and  I  should  be  very  glad  if  you  would 
allow  me  to  mention  your  name  at  a  meeting  which  will 
probably  be  held  for  the  purpose  early  next  week 

I  will  only  add  that  I  shall  be  deeply  grateful  if  you 
can  comply  with  my  request. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

E.  H.  Perowne." 

At  first  it  was  difficult  to  entertain  an  idea  so 
novel.  Parliament  would  absorb  a  great  deal  of 
time,  and  it  would  necessarily  turn  his  thoughts  away 
from  literary  work  and  into  new  channels.  But, 
gradually,  as  he  discussed  the  proposal,  the  vista 
opened  out  began  to  appeal  to  his  imagination.  His 
fingers  went  up  to  his  moustache  as  they  always  did 
when  his  brain  worked  quickly,  he  walked  more 
rapidly  and  became  silent.     His  wife  had  no  wish  to 


1 89 1  Election  as  Member  279 

influence  him  either  way,  so  up  and  down  he  paced 
for  half  an  hour,  till  he  made  up  his  mind.  ''  Upon 
my  word,  C,"  he  exclaimed,  ''  I  think  I'll  accept. 
After  all,  it's  not  a  life  sentence.  I  can  come  out 
when  I  like." 

The  nomination  was  made  on  the  6th  of  October, 
and  on  the  loth  Jebb  was  returned  unopposed.  '*  An 
Amurath  an  Amurath  succeeds,"  said  the  Times,  in 
allusion  to  the  fact  that  Sir  George  Stokes  was  the 
other  representative  of  the  University.  "One  of 
the  most  distinguished  Cambridge  mathematicians  is 
followed  by  the  most  finished  classical  scholar  that 
Cambridge  or  perhaps  Great  Britain  possesses." 

A  vote  on  another  subject  took  place  in  the 
Senate  House  this  same  month  with  a  result  very 
much  to  his  mind.  The  proposal  that  a  Syndicate 
should  be  appointed  to  inquire  whether  Greek 
should  be  retained  in  the  Previous  Examination  was 
defeated  by  525  non-placets  to  185  placets.  The 
victory  was  so  crushing  that  the  scientific  men  began 
to  consider  an  alternative  •  scheme — whether  men 
who  did  not  wish  to  qualify  for  the  B.  A.  degree  might 
not  be  given  simply  a  degree  in  science.  The  suc- 
cess of  such  a  scheme,  it  was  decided,  depended 
largely  on  the  tests  of  a  general  education  which  might 
be  demanded  under  it  from  students  of  science.  The 
matter  is  still  under  consideration  in  this  year  1907. 

Professor  Jebb  took  the  oath  as  Member  when 
Parliament  met  on  the  9th  of  February  1892.  He 
was  introduced  at  the  bar  of  the  House  by  Sir 
Richard  Webster  (now   Lord  Alverstone)  and  the 


28o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1892 

late  Sir  George  Stokes,  both  old  friends.  He  could 
not  feel  strange  in  his  new  surroundings  when  at 
every  turn  he  met  some  face  familiar  to  him  from 
undergraduate  days,  and  received  so  many  friendly 
welcomes.  The  session  bade  fair  to  be  a  quiet  one. 
The  Government  had  now  been  in  power  for  six 
years ;  it  would  hardly  introduce  any  great  measure 
with  a  dissolution  so  near.  He  was  able  to  get 
away  a  week  or  two  before  the  Easter  recess  and 
take  ship  for  America,  where  he  had  agreed  to  give 
a  course  of  lectures  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
Short  as  it  was,  this  second  visit  across  the  sea  com- 
peted with  the  first  in  interest.  Already  he  knew 
the  President  of  the  University  and  several  of  the 
Professors,  whom  it  was  a  great  pleasure  to  meet 
again.  Society  in  Baltimore  was  very  kind  to  him  ; 
the  climate,  at  its  best  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  in 
that  lovely  month  of  April,  was  in  itself  a  joy. 
Large  and  enthusiastic  audiences  attended  his  lec- 
tures on  poetry.  He  came  back  almost  convinced 
that,  of  all  the  places  he  knew,  Baltimore  was  the 
pleasantest  to  live  in.  I  think  the  glamour  of  the 
golden  spring  was  still  about  him. 

When  Parliament  met  after  the  Easter  recess,  he 
was  able  to  make  his  maiden  speech  on  a  subject  of 
which  every  detail  was  familiar  to  him — the  Scot- 
tish University  Ordinances  Bill.  In  reporting  the 
debate  the  Scotsman  said,  ^'  The  fate  of  the  case 
presented  in  both  Houses  on  Tuesday  for  alteration 
or  change  in  the  Scottish  University  Ordinances, 
was  decided  much  according  to  the  merits  of  the 


1892]  Dissolution  of  Parliament  281 

method  of  presentation.  In  the  lower  House  the 
whole  subsequent  debate  rolled  round  the  lines  of 
Professor  Jebb's  speech." 

So  that  was  well  over.  He  had  been  vaguely 
nervous  about  his  first  speech,  but  as  the  subject  was 
one  on  which  it  was  quite  natural  for  him  to  address 
the  House,  the  nervous  feeling  quickly  vanished. 
He  told  his  wife  that  soon  he  almost  forgot  he 
was  speaking  to  other  than  his  customary  academic 
audience. 

Meanwhile  the  dissolution  of  Parliament  had 
been  announced  for  the  28th.  Jebb  took  no  steps 
towards  his  re-election  ;  he  said,  '*  in  a  University 
constituency  you  must  wait  till  you  are  asked." 
The  invitation  came  on  June  22nd,  and  etiquette 
now  permitted  him  to  issue  his  address. 

The  election  was  on  the  4th  of  July  when  he 
and  Sir  John  Gorst  were  duly  returned  to  represent 
the  University  in  Parliament,  Sir  John  in  succession 
to  Sir  George  Stokes  who  had  retired  on  account 
of  his  advanced  age.  Jebb  was  asked,  about  this 
time,  to  become  a  member  of  the  Scottish  Uni- 
versity Commission,  to  fill  the  place  vacated  by 
Lord  Sandford,  an  honour  he  was  compelled  to 
decline. 

The  next  few  weeks  were  devoted  to  steady 
work  on  the  Electra  of  Sophocles,  which  was  reluc- 
tantly put  aside  when  the  new  Parliament  met  on 
August  8th.  The  Liberals  were  now  in  power  and 
Mr  Gladstone  Prime  Minister. 


282  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1892 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"  House  of  Commons, 

August  ^th,  1892. 

At  1.20  I  was  in  the  House  and  was  duly  sworn 

in The  proposer  and  seconder  of  the  Address 

made  their  speeches  ;  Mr  Asquith,  the  mover  of  the 
amendment,  was  very  good  ;  Mr  Burt,  the  miners' 
member,  gave  the  impression  of  honesty  ;  but  the 
speech  of  the  day,  or  evening,  was  John  Redmond's 
the  ParnelHte  leader,  who  made  it  perfectly  clear 
that  he  will  give  the  Gladstonians  no  quarter  if  they 
fail  to  satisfy  the  demands  which  he  clearly  defined. 
This  afternoon  I  secured  a  place  exactly  opposite 
Mr  Gladstone,  knowing  that  he  was  going  to  speak 
early.  At  3.30  he  rose  and  spoke  for  an  hour  and  a 
half.  It  was  a  very  able  speech  in  his  peculiar  way, 
and  of  course  left  us  as  wise  as  we  were  before, 
except  that  he  applied  the  words  '  full  and  effectual ' 
to  the  measure  of  Home  Rule  which  he  means  to 
grant  if  he  can.  Then  Balfour  spoke  for  about  an 
hour  with  admirable  force." 

On  March  15th,  1893,  the  University  Extension 
Society  held  its  meeting  in  the  Egyptian  Hall  at  the 
Mansion  House  and  Professor  Jebb  gave  the  annual 
address.  The  Journal  of  the  Society  says  that  the 
occasion  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  univer- 
sity extension.  "Not  that  anything  was  then  said 
or  done  which  inaugurated  a  new  departure  either 
in  matter  or  in  form,  but  that  the  principle  that 
inspired  the  work  was  emphasised  in  an  eminently 
striking  manner.     A  body  of  students  which  taxed 


^^s]  University  Extension  Lecture  283 

the  capacities  of  the  spacious  Hall  listened  with  the 
keenest  interest  and  appreciation  while  the  foremost 
scholar  in  England  urged  the  paramount  importance 
of  an  essentially  unremunerative  branch  of  learning. 
There  was  probably  not  one  person  present  who 
could  indulge  the  slightest  expectation  of  bettering 
his  or  her  worldly  position  by  the  fullest  adoption  of 
Professor  Jebb's  earnest  commendation  of  the  study 
which  has  made  his  name  famous  throughout  Europe. 
It  is  most  gratifying  to  know  that  there  un- 
doubtedly exists  among  extension  students  a  genuine 
recognition  of  this  nobler  element  in  educational 
enterprise."  This  lecture  on  Greek  Literature  and 
Modern  Life  attracted  much  notice,  and  was  the 
occasion  of  a  good  deal  of  discussion  in  the  Spectator 
and  other  journals. 

In  March  Jebb  had  been  asked  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  to  attend  and  speak  at  a  meeting  of 
Churchmen  organised  for  the  purpose  of  expressing 
the  Church  opinion  on  a  Bill,  then  before  the  House, 
which  was  avowedly  the  first  step  towards  Disesta- 
blishment. In  his  answer  he  made  some  suggestions 
concerning  the  arrangements  of  the  meeting,  and 
proposed  that  there  should  be  a  preconcerted  line  of 
speaking  and  division  of  subjects.  The  Archbishop 
thought  this  a  good  idea,  if  it  could  be  carried  out, 
and  sent  Jebb  a  list  of  the  speakers,  asking  for  further 
suggestions. 

A  mighty  gathering  met  in  the  Albert  Hall  on 
the  1 6th  of  May,  surpassing  even  the  hopes  of  its 
organisers  and  filling  its  vast  space  to  the  roof.    The 


284  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1893 

two  Archbishops  were  there,  most  of  the  Bishops, 
and  a  great  crowd  of  distinguished  laymen.  The 
list  of  speakers  was  long,  and  the  division  of  subjects 
proved  to  be  a  wise  step,  as  thus  every  point  was 
dwelt  upon.  The  Times  said  that  "  people  who  can 
find  no  trace  of  argument  In  the  speeches  would  find 
it  rather  difficult  to  reply  to  only  two  of  them,  say  to 
Lord  Selbourne's  and  Professor  J  ebb's."  J  ebb  took 
for  his  subject  the  Characteristic  Qualities  and  Recu- 
perative Power  of  the  National  Church. 

The  next  week,  on  May  24th,  he  was  called 
upon  to  speak  at  a  meeting  in  Cambridge  against 
the  Home  Rule  Bill,  again  before  a  large  and  en- 
thusiastic audience.  Then  at  the  end  of  July  he 
delivered  the  inaugural  address  at  a  meeting  of  local 
lecturers  in  connection  with  the  University  Extension 
Scheme.  Upwards  of  six  hundred  students  had  col- 
lected at  Cambridge  for  a  month's  study.  His  subject 
was  The  Work  of  the  Universities  for  the  Nation^. 

Small  time  was  there  for  his  own  literary  work 
this  year.  It  was  only  by  the  most  strenuous  effort 
that  another  volume  of  his  edition  of  Sophocles  was 
finished.  And  yet  he  had  never  done  so  much  work 
in  his  life,  hard  as  he  had  worked  hitherto,  as  In 
these  years  of  public  duties  and  demands.  Claims 
of  every  kind  were  made  upon  him,  and  he  always 
gave  his  best — If  possible — which  meant  some 
thought,  some  time  devoted  to  each  occasion. 

It  was  our  habit  to  take  a  house  in  town  for 
three  months  after  Easter,  and  then  for  him  to  pair 
^  Published  in  Essays  and  Addresses,  1907. 


1893]  Looking  for  a  House  285 

when  possible  during  the  remainder  of  the  session, 
keeping  himself  free  to  vote  on  any  Important 
measure.  He  could  also,  by  arrangement  with  the 
Whips,  stay  down  unpaired.  Cambridge  Is  so  near 
London  that  It  was  easy  for  him,  when  summoned 
by  telegraph,  to  be  at  the  House  In  time  to  vote 
the  same  evening. 

In  August,  he  seems  to  have  undertaken  to  look 
at  a  house  we  had  heard  might  be  let  the  next  year. 
He  was  very  shy  about  it,  as  he  always  was  In 
making  any  practical  arrangements. 


To  HIS  Wife. 

**  United  Service  Club, 

Pall  Mall,  S.W., 

Aug.  10th,   1893. 

From  the  heading  of  this  paper  you  might  natu- 
rally infer  that  my  military  qualities  had  at  last  been 
recognised  and  that  the  War  Office  had  made  me 
an  honorary  Colonel,  and  this  Club  an  honorary 
member.  This  Is  not  the  fact,  however :  it  is  only 
that  the  Athenaeum  Is  having  Its  autumn  cleaning, 
and  they  have  taken  us  in  here.  The  first  person 
I  saw  was  S.,  who,  with  his  usual  tact,  remarked  in 
a  stentorian  voice,  '  Out  of  our  element  here ! ' — in 
a  room  full  of  warriors  and  sailors,  tempered  by  a 
few  parsons  from  over  the  way. 

Well :  I  have  been  to  see  the  Canon's  house. 
I  should  never  get  on  as  a  swell  mobsman,  or  clerical 
burglar.     A  young  woman  showed  me  the  place  ; 


286  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1893 

and  the  door  being  open,  I  asked  for  Mrs  Hardy. 
She  was  Mrs  Hardy.  Then  I  explained  my  busi- 
ness ;  and  I  shall  not  easily  forget  the  profound 
suspicion  that  appeared  on  her  expressive  features. 
I  felt,  myself,  that  it  was  thoroughly  deserved. 
Luckily  the  Canon  was  at  home,  and  I  asked  to 
see  him.  Just  then  he  came  out.  Gentlemanlike  old 
man  ;  small  features  and  small  voice ;  very  pleasant 
and  courteous.  The  house  is  simply  charming,  and 
might  be  in  the  country.  It  looks  out  on  a  beautiful 
garden,  but  it  is  hidden  away  at  the  end  of  the 
cloister ;  the  approach  is  dark  and  sepulchral.  The 
Canon  thinks  that  they  could  let  it  for  May  and 
June,  if  we  wished.  He  is  free  to  choose  his  months 
of  residence,  and  where  his  living  is,  is  his  real 
home,  he  said.  Altogether,  the  thing  is  well  worth 
considering.  I  explained  to  him  that  it  was  not 
for  the  likes  of  me  to  settle  anything.  Then  we 
strolled  into  the  Abbey,  and  I  saw  the  window 
which  they  are  going  to  make  a  memorial  window 
to  Lowell." 

In  October,  1893,  the  academic  and  even  a 
wider  world  suffered  a  great  loss  in  the  death  of 
Dr  Jowett,  the  Master  of  Balliol.  To  quote  the 
President  of  Magdalen,  Mr  Herbert  Warren,  "  He 
was  in  all  things  a  man  full  of  public  spirit,  high- 
souled,  thinking  himself  worthy  of  great  ends,  and 
proving  worthy  of  them  ;  a  singular  and  potent  indi- 
viduality in  his  day  and  generation."  No  one,  not 
even  the  humblest  who  came  into  his  presence,  could 
fail   to    realise    his  remarkable  personality.     Every 


1893]  Death  of  Dr  Jowett  287 

conversation  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  with 
him  is  fresh  in  my  memory.  One  day  I  happened 
to  say  it  was  difficult  to  know  what  made  for  in- 
fluence in  a  University  society.  It  was  not  wealth, 
for  the  people  whose  society  was  most  sought  had 
very  small  incomes  and  entertained  most  simply ; 
it  was  not  rank,  for  no  questions  were  asked  who 
anybody  was ;  it  was  not  even  intellect ;  when  X. 
for  instance,  who  had  written  a  very  remarkable 
book,  took  me  in  to  dinner,  I  did  not  feel  elated. 
"What  influences  in  a  University  society  is  what 
influences  all  the  world  over,"  was  his  answer, — 
"  force  of  character."  Cant  and  pretension  were 
abhorrent  to  him.  Another  time  when  I  quoted, 
as  he  thought  pretentiously,  that  '*  character  is 
destiny,"  he  answered,  '*Ah!  that  is  too  deep  for 
me."  I  laughed,  for  his  snubs  never  hurt,  and  said, 
"  I  mean,  being  what  I  am,  I  must  do  what  I  do." 
He  laughed  then  too,  and  began  a  most  interesting 
talk  about  the  effect  of  environment  and  education 
on  character. 

Two  years  before  his  death  he  had  a  very  serious 
illness  and  was  told  that  he  was  dying.  "  I  lay 
there,"  he  said  to  me  afterwards,  ''  waiting  for  the 
end  in  perfect  content.  I  felt  no  wish  to  have  it 
otherwise.  What  surprised  me  was  that  when,  most 
unexpectedly,  a  turn  for  the  better  came  and  I  got 
up  and  about  again,  I  was  distinctly  glad,  glad  as 
I  had  hardly  ever  been  before."  He  told  an  intimate 
friend  that  the  two  years  of  life  that  came  after  were 
the  happiest  years  of  his  life. 


288  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

His  friendship  was  a  great  possession.  Professor 
Jebb  cherished  its  memory  as  among  the  best  things 
it  had  been  given  him  to  know. 

In  November,  Jebb  was  again  elected  a  Member 
of  the  Governing  Body  of  Charterhouse,  the  former 
appointment  having  lapsed  when  residence  at 
Glasgow  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  attend  the 
meetings.  He  was  pleased  to  have  the  connection 
with  his  old  school  restored,  and  deferred  a  trip 
abroad  in  order  that  he  might  be  present  at  the 
dinner  on  ''Founder's  Day,"   December   12th. 

In  February,  1894,  he  was  asked  if  he  would 
allow  his  name  to  be  among  those  to  be  submitted 
to  the  Queen  as  members  of  a  proposed  Royal 
Commission  on  Secondary  Education.  It  was  high 
time  that  something  should  be  done  to  bring  order 
out  of  what  was  described,  in  Mr  Goschen's  historic 
words,  as  *'  a  chaos  of  areas,  a  chaos  of  rates,  and 
a  chaos  of  authorities,"  and  this  Commission  was 
the  first  step  taken. 

When  the  list  of  Commissioners  was  published 
with  Mr  Bryce  as  chairman,  the  selection  of  the 
Government  met  with  general  approval.  The  first 
meeting  was  held  on  March  i6th,  and  meetings  were 
regularly  held  twice  a  week  (except  in  vacation), 
from  April  loth  until  the  end  of  the  year.  The 
diary  records  the  59th  meeting  on  December  12th. 
The  Headmaster  of  Eton,  Mr  Lyttelton,  has  most 
kindly  sent  me  some  recollections  of  the  part  taken 
by  Professor  Jebb  in  the  work  of  the  Commission. 


1894]  Report  on  Education  289 

He  writes  : 

"Once  while  the  Commission  was  discussing  the  various 
articles  contributed  by  different  members,  an  incident  oc- 
curred which  showed  Jebb's  unerring  perception  in  language. 
One  of  the  members,  who  displayed  something  approaching 
to  pugnacity  in  defending  his  own  phrases,  had  written  of 
the  teachers  of  England  as  a  *  highly  trained  and  intelligent 
set  of  men/  Someone  took  exception  to  the  expression  as 
being  patronising ;  but  as  the  author  of  it  showed  no  sort 
of  indication  of  surrender,  we  were  in  rather  a  difficulty, 
when  Jebb  whispered  to  his  neighbour,  '  The  adjectives 
would  be  very  appropriate  if  applied  to  elephants.'  This 
saying  was  at  once  reported  and  settled  the  question.  The 
sentence  was  modified  without  a  word  of  protest  from  the 
author. 

Whatever  Jebb  undertook  to  do  was  perfectly  done. 
This  faculty  was  exemplified  in  the  report  of  the  Bryce 
Commission  on  Secondary  Education  in  1893.  He  was 
entrusted  with  the  task  of  writing  Part  I.  of  the  Report 
volume,  and,  whereas  the  contributions  of  others  were 
subjected  to  prolonged  criticism  and  much  alteration, 
J  ebb's  work  was  so  accurate  in  substance  and  artistic  in 
form  that  it  was  accepted  at  once,  no  one  having  more 
than  trifling  suggestions  to  offer.  Probably  no  written 
work  of  his  shows,  more  distinctly  than  this  Report,  the 
severe  self-restraint  and  absence  of  display  which  I  think 
would  have  characterised  all  his  literary  output,  even  if  his 
instinct  had  not  been  confirmed  by  his  Greek  training. 

He  once  consulted  my  opinion  on  some  questions  of 
English  composition,  in  connexion  I  think  with  the 
address  sent  by  Cambridge  to  the  Queen  in  1897.  Our 
brief  conversation  was  to  me  an  education  in  art,  and  a 
revelation  of  his  superb  aesthetic  taste  in  language." 

J.  M.  19 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE   WELSH    CHURCH    DISESTABLISHMENT    BILL. 
SPEECH.     ILLNESS. 

1894 — 1896. 

In  April,  1894,  Mr  Asquith  introduced  a  Bill 
*'to  terminate  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  Wales  and  Monmouthshire,  and  to  make 
provision  in  respect  of  the  temporalities  thereof." 
The  debate  in  the  House  upon  this  Bill  was  long 
and  earnest.  The  speech  Jebb  made  in  defence  of 
the  establishment  is  so  characteristic  of  his  style 
of  speaking;  —  it  also  explains  the  situation  so 
clearly,  that  perhaps  my  readers  will  forgive  me  if 
I  include  it  here. 

"  In  asking  the  indulgence  of  the  House  for  a  few  minutes 
only,  my  aim  is  less  to  criticise  details  than  to  consider 
certain  large  aspects  of  the  question  which  this  Bill  brings 
before  us.  Vital  as  the  measure  is  to  the  highest  interests 
of  Wales, — far-reaching  as  must  be  its  ulterior  conse- 
quences, should  it  pass  into  law,  for  the  Principality, — it  is 
not  of  less  import,  and  its  consequences  will  not  be  less 
extensive  or  less  serious,  for  England  as  a  whole.  It  is  not 
merely  the  first  step  towards  the  disestablishment  and  dis- 
endowment  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  actually  the  first 


1894]    speech  on    Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill    291 

instalment  of  such  a  measure.  Every  member  of  the 
Church  of  England  is  therefore  entitled  to  participate  in 
this  discussion,  even  although  (as  is  my  own  case)  he  is 
ignorant  of  the  Welsh  language,  and  has  no  such  know- 
ledge of  Wales  as  may  be  acquired  by  residence.  The 
principle  affirmed  as  justifying  the  introduction  of  the  Bill 
has  been  stated  with  the  utmost  frankness  and  clearness  by 
the  Home  Secretary.  It  is  simply  that  at  the  last  general 
election  Wales  sent  to  this  House  a  large  majority  of 
members  in  favour  of  such  a  Bill.  But  Wales  has  not  yet 
a  separate  Parliament ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  every  member 
of  this  Imperial  Assembly  to  consider  this  and  every 
question  from  the  point  of  view  of  what  is  best  for  the 
whole  kingdom.  The  figures  31  to  3  are  not  claimed  as 
representing  the  proportionate  number  of  electors  in  Wales 
who  voted  for  or  against  disestablishment.  So  long  as  a 
religious  census  is  refused,  we  lack  the  primary  and  most 
essential  document  for  the  investigation  of  this  aspect  of 
the  matter.  No  doubt  the  Church  question  was  a  pro- 
minent question — I  should  be  ready  to  assume  that  it  was 
the  most  prominent — at  many  elections  in  Wales  ;  but  did 
no  other  issues,  such  as  Home  Rule  for  Ireland,  contribute 
to  the  result  ?  And  as  to  the  Church  issue  itself,  on  what 
grounds  was  it  placed  at  the  elections?  Was  there  no 
appeal  to  political  motives,  to  selfish  cupidity,  or  to  sec- 
tarian animosity?  And  now  a  local  verdict,  clouded  with 
all  these  ambiguities,  is  made  the  plea  for  commencing  the 
destruction  of  a  national  institution. 

Let  us  remember  the  nature  of  that  national  institution. 
In  the  discussion  of  this  Bill,  more  has  been  heard  of  en- 
dowment than  of  establishment ;  the  Church  has  been 
considered,  though  not  exclusively,  yet  chiefly,  as  a  number 
of  ecclesiastical  corporations,  sole  or  aggregate,  which 
severally  hold  property.  Establishment,  so  far  as  it  has 
been  touched  upon  in  these  debates,  has  been  regarded 

19 — 2 


292  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

mainly  under  the  aspect  of  privilege.  When  the  Home 
Secretary  introduced  the  Suspensory  Bill  last  year,  he 
spoke  of  the  privileges  appertaining  to  the  status  of  estab- 
lishment— a  phrase  correct  in  itself,  but  corresponding  with 
an  inaccurate  conception  in  the  popular  mind.  The  '  estab- 
lishment '  of  the  Church  is  often  spoken  of  as  if  it  meant 
that  once  upon  a  time  the  State  had  singled  out  this  re- 
ligious denomination  from  among  other  denominations, — 
had  set  it  up, — and  had  attributed  to  it,  by  means  of  certain 
privileges,  a  higher  spiritual  rank  than  that  which  was 
accorded  to  the  others.  The  House  is  aware,  however, 
that  the  State  never  did  anything  of  the  kind.  The  word 
*  establish '  does  not  mean  only  *  to  set  up ' ;  it  means  also 
'to  settle,'  'to  confirm  in  rights,'  'to  ratify.'  In  this  sense 
it  occurs  in  the  Statute  of  Provisors,  where  Parliament  is 
described  as  having  '  ordered  and  established '  such  or 
such  a  thing ;  in  the  Acts  of  Uniformity  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  with  reference  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  and  to 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  and  in  the  Act  of  Union 
between  England  and  Scotland,  with  reference  to  the 
'  Protestant  religion '  in  England  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland  respectively.  Those  relations  between 
the  Church  of  England  and  the  State,  which  collectively 
are  described  as  '  establishment,'  derive  their  origin  from  a 
time  when  the  Church  had  as  yet  no  spiritual  competitor. 
The  Church  possessed  great  power,  which  was  liable  to  be 
affected  by  foreign  influence ;  and  the  State  thought  it 
prudent,  as  a  matter  of  public  policy,  to  take  from  the 
Church  certain  securities  against  possible  excesses  of  un- 
controlled ecclesiastical  authority.  It  was  then  enacted 
that  the  ecclesiastical  Law  and  Courts  should  become  part 
of  the  public  law  of  the  realm.  By  coming  within  the 
framework  of  the  State,  the  Church  gained  a  new  sanction 
for  its  law,  but  it  also  gave  up  something.  The  primary 
characteristic  of  this  alliance  between  Church  and  State 


1894]  speech  on    Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill    293 

was  not  the  bestowal  of  privileges  upon  the  Church  by  the 
State,  but  rather  the  imposition  by  the  State  upon  the 
Church  of  certain  limitations.  We  have  heard  a  good  deal 
about  religious  equality ;  but  I  would  venture  to  remind 
the  House  that  there  is  a  thing  still  more  important  than 
that — a  condition  precedent  to  it — and  that  is  religious 
liberty.  It  may  fairly  be  claimed  for  the  Anglican  Church, 
and  will  not  be  denied  even  by  those  who  are  least  friendly 
to  her,  if  only  they  are  unprejudiced,  that,  regulated  as  she 
has  been  by  her  relations  with  the  State,  and  strengthened 
thereby  in  a  temper  of  moderation,  she  has  been  throughout 
the  centuries  the  greatest  bulwark  against  spiritual  tyranny, 
and  has  afforded  the  best  safeguard  of  religious  freedom. 
If  we  seek  a  contrast,  need  we  look  further  than  to  some  of 
the  provisions  in  Mr  Gee's  now  celebrated  scheme,  or  to  the 
spirit  which  animated  a  speech  to  which  we  have  listened 
this  afternoon  t 

I  ask  leave  now  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  existing 
situation  in  Wales.  I  shall  not  attempt  on  the  present 
occasion  to  go  into  the  details  of  statistics,  but  shall  refer 
only  to  some  general  features  of  the  case.  The  most  im- 
portant fact  concerning  the  Established  Church  in  Wales  is 
the  well-known  one  that  in  the  course  of  this  century  she 
has  experienced  a  great  revival  of  activity,  and  that  her 
progress  in  this  respect  continues.  This  is,  indeed,  admitted 
on  all  hands.  I  am  content  to  quote  one  out  of  many 
Nonconformist  testimonies.  On  November  20,  1883,  a 
Conference  on  disestablishment  was  held  at  Carnarvon, 
when  a  Dissenting  minister  read  a  paper,  afterwards  pub- 
lished by  the  Liberation  Society.  He  fully  and  fairly 
recognised  the  renewal  of  energy  in  the  Church.  He  then 
said  :  '  I  know  that  this  revived  activity  in  the  Church  is 
taken  by  some  as  an  argument  why  we  should  leave  the 
Church  alone,  and  allow  it  to  go  on  doing  good  ;  but  I ' — 
he  added  with  great  frankness — 'but  I  take  the  argument 


294  -^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

to  be  quite  the  reverse.'  Would  it  be  possible  to  find 
better  confirmation  of  a  remark  made  on  Thursday  last 
from  this  side  of  the  House,  that  the  present  moment  had 
been  chosen  for  the  attack,  because  it  was  seen  that  the 
Church  was  so  rapidly  gaining  ground?  In  view  of  this 
progressive  activity,  why  should  it  be  beyond  hope  that  the 
Church  in  Wales  should  gradually  win  back  some  at  least 
of  those  who  are  now  estranged  from  her,  and  establish 
with  the  rest  a  satisfactory  modus  vivendit  So  natural  is 
such  a  hope,  that  supporters  of  this  or  a  similar  measure 
have  more  than  once  felt  constrained  to  notice  it  in  this 
House; — it  was  referred  to  by  Mr  Watkin  Williams  in 
1870,  and  last  year  by  the  Hon.  Gentleman  who  then  sat 
for  Montgomeryshire  [Lord  Rendel] ;— but  in  each  case  the 
answer  given  was  the  same :  it  was  summed  up  in  the 
words  *  Too  late.'  '  Too  late '  is  a  sorrowful  answer,  when 
the  question  is  one  of  reconciliation  between  different 
Christian  denominations ;  and  I  decline  to  accept  those 
words  as  a  final  reply  to  such  a  question,  without,  at  all 
events,  further  examination.  My  first  reason  for  refusing 
to  abandon  the  hope  to  which  I  have  referred  arises  from 
the  history  of  Nonconformity  in  Wales.  I  shall  not  adduce 
any  recondite  facts,  but  merely  such  elementary  facts  as  are 
well-known,  or  can  be  learned  from  books  accessible  to  all. 
What  was  the  origin  of  Welsh  Nonconformity?  The 
Right  Hon.  Baronet,  the  Member  for  East  Denbighshire 
(Sir  George  Osborne  Morgan),  once  said  in  this  House  that 
the  cause  of  Welsh  Dissent  could  be  summed  up  in  two 
words,  '  English  Bishops ' :  and,  rightly  understood,  that 
statement  is  quite  true,  though  it  requires  to  be  supple- 
mented. Under  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts,  when  forty-four 
Welshmen  in  succession  occupied  sees  in  Wales,  the  Welsh 
people  were  well  affected  towards  the  Church.  The  change 
dated  from  the  Revolution.  Then  began  the  policy  of 
filling  the  Welsh  sees  with  Englishmen,  who  not  only  were 


1894]    speech  on   Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill    295 

ignorant  of  the  Welsh  language,  but  seldom  had  much 
sympathy  with  Welsh  traditions.  That  was  the  cause 
which  first  estranged  the  Welsh  people  from  the  Church. 
But  there  was  also  another  cause — the  extreme  poverty  of 
the  Church  in  Wales  during  the  eighteenth  century.  A 
writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for  January,  1890,  states 
that  in  the  year  1720  there  were  in  the  diocese  of  St  David's 
no  fewer  than  233  livings  of  less  value  than  £^0  a  year,  and 
154  of  these  were  worth  less  than  ;^30  a  year.  This  penury 
necessarily  crippled  the  work  of  the  Church,  and  bred  dis- 
content. Along  with  these  things  came  that  torpor  and 
apathy  which  unhappily  was  not  peculiar  at  that  period  to 
the  Church  in  Wales,  but  affected,  more  or  less,  the  entire 
Church  of  England.  It  was  under  these  circumstances  that 
the  old  Welsh  Methodism  took  its  rise.  That  movement 
was  begun  by  Welsh  Churchmen ;  it  arose  within  the 
Church ;  it  remained  within  the  Church  ;  and  it  was  always 
entirely  friendly  to  the  Church.  In  proof  of  that,  it  is 
enough  to  recall  one  or  two  of  the  names  which  to  this  day 
are  household  words  in  Wales.  Daniel  Rowlands  lived  and 
died  a  Churchman ;  so  did  Griffith  Jones,  the  father,  as  he 
has  been  called,  of  national  education  in  Wales,  and  the 
originator  of  the  itinerant  ministry  ;  so  did  Howell  Harris, 
the  great  lay  preacher,  who  is  buried,  if  I  remember  right, 
near  the  altar  of  the  Church  of  Talgarth — by  his  own 
desire,  because  it  was  at  the  rails  of  that  altar,  he  said,  that 
he  had  first  experienced  a  sense  of  his  own  shortcomings. 
Meanwhile,  what  was  the  position  of  Welsh  Dissent? 
During  the  eighteenth  century,  Welsh  Dissent,  as  distin- 
guished from  Welsh  Methodism,  was  confined  to  small 
numbers  of  three  denominations — Baptists,  Independents 
and  Presbyterians.  Early  in  the  present  century  (in  181 1) 
came  the  great  separation  of  Nonconformists  from  the 
Church  in  Wales  ;  but  that  separation  was  not  associated 
on  the  part  of  the  Nonconformists  with  any  such  tone;  or 


296  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

attitude  towards  the  Church  as  we  unfortunately  now  see  in 
some  Hon.  Gentlemen  opposite.  Thomas  Charles  of  Bala, 
who  left  the  Church,  retained,  to  his  death  in  18 14,  a  strong 
affection  for  it.  In  1834  the  Methodists  held  a  meeting  at 
Bala,  which  was  attended  by  some  500  preachers  and  elders 
from  various  parts  of  Wales.  At  this  meeting  a  recom- 
mendation was  proposed  by  a  Methodist  from  Anglesea, 
and  seconded  by  another  from  Pembrokeshire,  which  con- 
tained these  words  : — 

*  That  we  deeply  lament  the  nature  of  that  agitation, 
now  so  prevalent  in  this  kingdom,  and  which  avowedly  has 
for  its  object  the  severing  of  the  National  Church  from  the 
State,  and  other  changes  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  We 
therefore  are  of  opinion  that  it  pertains  not  unto  us  to 
interfere  in  such  matters ;  and  we  strenuously  enjoin  upon 
every  member  of  our  connexion  to  meddle  not  with  them 
that  are  given  to  change.' 

I  will  add  only  one  other  illustration,  which  brings  us  to 
a  still  later  date — the  testimony  of  a  witness  who  ought  to 
carry  weight  with  Hon.  Gentlemen  opposite,  for  he  was  in 
politics  a  strong  Liberal  ;  in  his  early  life  he  had  suffered 
for  his  sympathy  with  Dissenters,  in  the  matter  of  tests  at 
the  Universities  ;  he  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  men  who 
ever  occupied  the  See  of  St  David's;  he  had  acquired,  I 
believe,  some  knowledge  of  the  Welsh  language,  and  he 
certainly  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  Welsh  people — I  mean, 
of  course,  the  scholar  and  historian,  Connop  Thirlwall.  In 
June,  1869,  he  gave  his  vote  in  another  place  for  the  second 
reading  of  the  Irish  Church  Bill,  and  prefaced  that  vote  by 
a  speech  in  which  he  incidentally  touched  on  the  alleged 
analogy  between  the  case  of  Ireland  and  the  case  of  Wales. 
He  observed  that  in  Wales  Nonconformists  were  not  divided, 
on  any  essential  matter,  from  Churchmen,  in  a  greater  de- 
gree than  some  Churchmen  were  divided  from  others.  I 
quote  this   remark   for  one  purpose  onlyj    it  shows  that 


1894]  speech  on    Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill     297 

Thirlwall,  a  man  of  singular  candour,  was  wholly  un- 
conscious, in  1869,  of  any  general  hostility  or  bitterness 
towards  the  Church  on  the  part  of  Nonconformists  in 
Wales.  The  phrase,  '  alien  Church,'  as  applied  to  the 
Church  in  Wales,  is,  in  truth,  of  very  recent  coinage.  I  can 
give  the  House  a  convincing  proof  of  that.  When  Mr 
Watkin  Williams,  in  1870,  introduced  his  Motion  for  dis- 
establishment in  Wales,  he  used  these  words  : — 

'  The  Church  Establishment  in  Wales  is  an  ancient  and 
venerable  institution.  It  is  not,  like  the  Church  in  Ireland, 
an  alien  Church,  thrust  upon  the  people  by  a  conqueror 
and  an  oppressor.  It  is  not,  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying, 
regarded  by  the  people  with  any  feelings  of  hostility.  In- 
deed, in  many  cases,  it  is  regarded  with  feelings  of  venera- 
tion and  affection.' 

When  the  Right  Hon.  Baronet,  the  Member  for  East 
Denbighshire  (Sir  G.  Osborne  Morgan),  employed  the 
phrase  '  alien  Church  '  the  other  evening,  he  did  not  con- 
fine it  to  the  historical  sense  of  '  alien,'  as  denoting  a 
Church  of  foreign  origin,  but  also  spoke  of  the  Church  as 
fundamentally  foreign  to  the  character  and  temper  of  the 
Welsh  people ;  it  was  too  '  cold  '  and  '  formal  '  for  them. 
In  other  words,  he  used  the  term  'alien'  so  as  to  include 
the  sense  of  '  uncongenial'  Those  words,  I  confess,  rang 
strangely  in  my  ears.  I  could  not  help  wondering  whether 
the  Right  Hon.  Gentleman  remembered  how,  in  the  last 
century,  great  congregations  flocked  together  in  Wales, 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Conway  to  the  mouth  of  the  Wye — 
and  to  hear  whom  ">  To  hear  the  founders  and  leaders  of 
the  old  Welsh  Methodism — clergymen  of  the  Church  of 
England,  who  used  the  Anglican  Liturgy.  It  is  recorded 
that  the  impressive  voice  of  Daniel  Rowlands  was  never 
heard  with  greater  effect  than  when  he  recited  the  Litany 
of  the  Church  :  and  by  how  many  gravesides  in  Wales  have 
not  Welsh  hearts  been  touched  and  Welsh  sorrow  soothed 


298  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

by  that  most  tender  and  pathetic  of  all  religious  formularies, 
the  ritual  which  this  '  cold  and  formal '  Church  has  ap- 
pointed for  the  burial  of  the  dead  ?  Then  can  hon. 
members  opposite  forget  one  signal  benefit  with  which  this 
*  alien  Church '  must  be  perpetually  associated  in  the  minds 
of  Welshmen?  They  are  justly  proud  of  their  native 
language ;  they  regard  it  as  a  principal  symbol  of  their 
nationality.  The  first  complete  version  of  the  Scriptures 
in  Welsh  was  brought  out  in  1588  by  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  William  Morgan,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
St  Asaph,  who  revised  Salesbury's  Welsh  version  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  prefixed  to  it  his  own  translation  of 
the  Old.  This  work  was  produced  under  the  auspices  of 
the  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  And  when,  a  genera- 
tion later  (in  1620),  a  revised  edition  of  Morgan's  Bible — 
that  which  is  still,  I  believe,  in  general  use — appeared,  by 
whose  aid  was  it  brought  out  ?  By  that  of  Parry,  Morgan's 
successor  in  the  See  of  St  Asaph,  and  Dr  John  Davies, 
Rector  of  Mallwyd  in  Merionethshire.  A  Welsh  scholar 
has  described  this  version  as  'the  book  which  fixed  the 
Welsh  language,  and  is  to  all  practical  purposes  the 
dictionary  of  the  Welsh  people.'  Thus,  at  a  moment  when 
this  language,  rightly  dear  to  Welshmen,  was  drooping  and 
ready  to  perish,  it  was  enshrined  in  its  noblest  literary 
monument  by  the  action  of  that  ancient  Mother,  that  so- 
called  '  alien  Church,'  against  which,  of  recent  days,  it  has 
too  often  been  uplifted  in  reproach  and  calumny.  Now  I 
would  say  a  word  on  a  topic  already  touched  on  by  my 
Right  Hon.  Friend  the  Leader  of  the  Opposition  (Mr  A.  J. 
Balfour).  The  Home  Secretary,  in  his  lucid  explanation  of 
the  arrangements  proposed  with  regard  to  the  four  Cathe- 
drals in  Wales,  stated  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Government, 
they  '  ought  to  be  treated  as  national  monuments.'  I  must 
own  that  the  phrase  astonished  me.  The  Cathedrals  have 
never  been  used,  and  were  never  intended,  for  any  other 


1894]  speech  on   Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill     299 

purpose  than  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England.  If  the 
Church  in  Wales  is  not  a  national  but  an  alien  Church,  how- 
can  these  monuments,  the  Cathedrals,  be  *  national '  ?  Or 
if  the  meaning  is  that,  when  transferred  to  the  new  triumvi- 
rate, they  will  become  national,  why  then  '  monuments '  ? 

I  have  now  given  one  reason  for  the  hope  and  the  belief 
that  a  better  understanding  between  Nonconformists  and 
Churchmen  in  Wales  is  not  so  impossible  as  is  assumed  by 
Hon.  Gentlemen  opposite, — that  reason,  namely,  which  is 
suggested  by  the  history  of  Welsh  Nonconformity.  My 
other  reason  is  based  upon  the  temper  and  tradition  of  the 
Anglican  Church.  The  Church  of  England  has  had  its 
shortcomings  and  failings,  but  at  almost  every  period  of  its 
history  it  has  known  how  to  conciliate  and  attract ;  it  has 
been  an  influence  tending  to  soften  the  sharper  conflicts  of 
interests,  to  harmonise  differences,  to  mitigate  the  causes  of 
social  strife,  and  to  bring  people  of  various  classes  and 
divergent  opinions  into  relations  of  mutual  goodwill,  or  at 
least  of  mutual  forbearance.  Look  at  the  older  and  greater 
of  the  Nonconformist  bodies  in  England  at  this  day  ;  their 
tendency  is  not  in  the  direction  of  a  wider  separation  in 
feeling  from  the  Church ;  it  is  rather  the  reverse.  Why 
should  the  same  influence  be  doomed  to  perpetual  sterility 
in  Wales,  and  in  Wales  alone.-*  If  I  were  a  Welshman, 
there  is  nothing  that  I  should  be  more  sorry  to  say,  or  to 
hear  said,  of  my  country,  than  that  it  was  the  only  part  of 
the  United  Kingdom  where  the  conduct  of  the  people  was 
inaccessible  to  an  agency  of  conciliation,  and  where  their 
ears  were  for  ever  sealed  against  a  message  of  peace. 

Suppose  this  Bill  becomes  an  Act,  and  the  Church  in 
Wales  is  disestablished  and  disendowed ;  in  Wales  the 
consequences  will  fall  most  heavily  on  the  poor.  I  have 
not  uttered  a  syllable  in  disparagement  of  Nonconformist 
ministration ;  but  it  is  recognised,  I  believe,  by  many 
earnest  Nonconformists  that  the  Church  in  Wales,  through 


300  Sh^  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

its  parochial  system,  has  been  enabled  to  do  a  work  which 
it  was  not  in  their  own  power  to  do.  If  this  Bill  passes 
into  law,  the  possibilities  of  such  parochial  work  will  be 
greatly  circumscribed  ;  and  the  poor  will  be  the  chief 
sufferers.  Again,  the  partial  diversion  to  educational  pur- 
poses of  funds  taken  from  the  Church  will  not  compensate 
the  poorest  classes  in  Wales  for  the  extinction  or  disable- 
ment of  the  Church  Voluntary  Schools ;  in  the  diocese  of 
Llandaff  alone  there  are  now  30,000  children  at  those 
schools.  Then  turn  from  Wales  to  England  at  large,  and 
consider  what  the  effect  will  be,  if  the  principle  of  this  Bill 
should  be  embodied  in  law.  Every  diocese  not  already 
disestablished  and  disendowed  will  thenceforth  exist  at  the 
mercy  of  local  agitation.  It  will  only  be  necessary  to 
show,  or  to  allege,  that  in  Cornwall  or  Yorkshire  a  local 
majority  exists  against  the  Established  Church,  and  the 
diocese  concerned  must  go.  The  Right  Hon.  Baronet,  the 
Member  for  East  Denbighshire,  said  in  1870 : — 

'  I  do  not  like  this  long  agony  of  piecemeal  dis- 
establishment. It  is  like  putting  a  man  to  death  by 
tearing  him  limb  from  limb.' 

Yes,  it  is  like  that — but  with  a  difference.  In  ancient 
and  in  modern  times  we  hear  of  men  being  slowly  hacked 
to  pieces  ;  but  that  was  not  after  a  mere  condemnation  of  a 
leg  or  an  arm  ;  it  was  after  some  sort  of  trial  held,  and 
some  sort  of  judgment  passed,  on  the  person  who  was  to  be 
dismembered.  I  thank  the  House  for  the  patience  with 
which  it  has  heard  me — especially  I  thank  those  Hon. 
Gentlemen  representing  Wales  from  whom  I  differ  so  com- 
pletely on  this  question  ;  no  word  has  fallen  from  me,  I 
trust,  which  could  embitter  this  great  controversy :  but  I 
contend  that,  before  this  Bill  pass  into  law,  we  who  oppose 
it  are  entitled  to  ask  that  the  Government  should  take  the 
collective  sense  of  the  country  upon  the  fate  of  the  Church 
as  a  whole." 


1894]  Church  Defence  Meetings  301 

The  Bill  did  not  pass.  Three  important  measures 
which  the  Government  were  bound  to  press  stood 
in  front  of  it.  Its  supporters  were  compelled  to 
wait  in  expectation  of  better  fortune  next  time. 

On  May  12th,  Professor  Jebb  presided  at  an 
influential  meeting  in  Cambridge  and  spoke  again 
on  the  same  subject;  also  on  the  i8th  at  a  meeting 
of  the  University  Church  Defence  Society  of  which 
he  was  President.  On  the  29th  in  response  to  an 
invitation  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  he 
joined  a  small  committee  formed  by  Dr  Benson  to 
consider  and  advise  upon  the  steps  to  be  taken  to 
meet  this  Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill.  *'  Although 
it  may  come  to  nothing,"  said  the  Archbishop,  *'we 
are  not  in  the  same  position  as  before  its  formulation, 
and  I  think  we  ought  to  see  our  way  to  affecting 
opinion  in  the  other  direction  by  using  it  as  a  text." 

The  Church  was  much  stirred  by  the  attack  on 
her  position,  and  all  over  the  country  this  summer 
meetings  were  held,  at  many  of  which  Jebb  was 
asked  to  speak.  The  points  he  most  dwelt  on  in 
his  speeches  were  these — that  the  benefits  of  the 
Established  Church  were  not  confined  to  her  own 
members ;  that  she  was  not  endowed  by  the  State 
but  by  the  liberality  of  her  own  children  ;  and  that 
she  was  the  especial  heritage  of  the  poorer  classes. 

The  next  time  he  had  occasion  to  speak  in  the 
House  was  on  the  Cambridge  Corporation  Bill,  on 
May  4th.  It  was  a  measure  which  settled  many 
controversies  between  the  town  and  the  University ; 
and  his  constituents  were  very  anxious  that  it  should 


302  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1894 

pass  as  it  stood.  The  Bill  had  come  before  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  as  unopposed,  but  considerable 
opposition  arose  when  the  order  for  the  Third 
Reading  was  discussed.  However  at  the  division 
the  House  declared  for  the  Third  Reading  and  the 
Bill  finally  became  law.  The  Mayor  of  Cambridge 
thanked  Professor  J  ebb  for  the  help  he  had  given 
in  piloting  the  Bill  through  its  last  stages. 

It  grieved  him  that  the  output  of  his  literary 
work  was  so  slight,  but  when  it  is  realized  that  he 
lectured  steadily  through  the  October  and  Lent 
Terms  and  fulfilled  all  the  other  duties  of  Regius 
Professor  of  Greek,  in  addition  to  parliamentary  and 
public  engagements,  the  wonder  is  that  so  much  was 
done.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1894  he  wrote 
an  Essay  on  Lord  Tennyson  for  Mr  T.  Humphry 
Ward's  English  Poets  and  the  Introduction  for  his 
Electra,  as  well  as  an  appendix  and  full  index. 
After  Parliament  began  and  the  many  Committees 
— Church,  Education,  and  Classical — started  their 
regular  meetings,  what  time  was  spared  from  these 
was  given  to  composing  speeches  and  addresses  in 
answer  to  requests  from  constituents.  Not  till  the 
end  of  July  could  he  put  pen  to  paper  in  the  work 
he  loved.  I  can  almost  hear  the  sigh  of  satisfaction 
with  which  he  wrote  in  his  diary  on  Saturday,  July 
28th  :  '*  Ajax,  crit.  notes  1-20.  Ajax  Com.  i — 5  "  ; 
and  feel  the  pang  of  another  entry  on  August  14th  : 
''  During  this  week  suspended  my  work  on  Ajax,  in 
order  to  write  on  the  Educational  Power  of  Journal- 
ism for  the  Institute  of  Journalists."     The  Institute 


1894]  Death  of  Arthur  J  ebb  303 

met  in  Cambridge  this  summer,  and  the  article  was 
an  address  to  be  given  to  them  in  the  Hall  of 
Trinity  on  their  first  evening. 

The  Christmas  vacation  was  devoted  to  reading 
reports  of  the  Assistant  Commissioners  and  making 
notes  for  his  own  report,  Part  I.  of  the  Report  of 
the  Secondary  Education  Commission. 

On  December  6th  the  diary  records  a  great  loss 
for  us  and  the  many  who  knew  and  loved  Arthur 
Trevor  Jebb.  ''Got  up  at  7.30  to  work  at  lecture. 
At  9.30  C.  sent  for  me.  Telegram  to  say  that 
Arthur  was  dead."  His  sister's  husband  had  died 
of  pneumonia  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of 
fifty-five.  Mr  Stanley  Leighton,  M.P.,  in  speaking 
at  a  meeting  in  Ellesmere  prefaced  his  remarks  by 
a  reference  to  this  loss. 

"A  voice  that  I  had  hoped  to  hear  to-night  is  silent 
now  for  ever,  and  we  have  lost  a  councillor  and  friend,  who 
brought  to  the  occupations  of  our  country  life,  to  business, 
and  to  amusement,  an  intellectual  flavour,  and  an  interesting 
individuality,  which  we  shall  sorely  miss.  His  criticism 
was  as  kindly  as  it  was  keen.  Arthur  Jebb  and  I  were 
educated  at  the  same  Oxford  College  of  Balliol,  and  in 
early  manhood  were  influenced  by  the  same  stimulating 
mental  and  moral  forces.  We  did  not  always  think  alike 
but  we  always  knew  how  to  respect  each  other. 

*A  fugitive  and  gracious  light  he  sought, 
Shy  to  illumine;   and  we  seek  it  too. 

This  does  not  come  with  houses  or  with  gold. 
With  place,  with  honour,  and  a  flattering  crew; 

'Tis  not  in  the  world's  market  bought  and  sold.' 


304  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1895 

When  we  leave  our  home  for  the  last  time,  may  our  record 
be  blameless  as  his.  A  legacy  to  us  his  life-work  has 
bequeathed,  to  discuss  with  candour  difficult  problems,  and 
to  use  courtesy  to  our  fellows  in  controversy." 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Hellenic  Society  in 
1895,  its  President  paid  a  fitting  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  the  late  Sir  Charles  Nev^ton,  vi^ho  had 
been  one  of  the  Society's  principal  founders,  and 
whose  death  had  occurred  since  the  last  meeting. 
After  sketching  the  chief  events  of  Newton's  life, 
J  ebb  dwelt  upon  what  he  had  done  for  archaeology  : 
*'  His  many  honours,  academic  or  public,  were  prized 
by  him  in  proportion  as  he  took  them  to  be  recog- 
nitions, not  merely  of  eminence  generally  but  of 
success  in  the  precise  aims  he  had  set  before  himself. 
The  chief  source  of  satisfaction  to  him  in  his  later 
years  was  to  think  that  classical  archaeology  had 
gained  so  much  ground  in  England  and  that  he  had 
helped  it  forward;  but  this  feeling  was  deeply  tinged 
with  melancholy ;  he  thought  of  himself  as  the  leader 
through  the  wilderness  who  was  not  to  enter  the 
promised  land.  There  are  minds  perhaps  in  which 
a  lifelong  conversation  with  the  past  so  confirms  the 
habit  of  retrospect  that  the  difficulties  of  earlier 
years  always  loom  large  even  after  later  successes  ; 
so  at  least  it  seemed  to  be  with  him.  But  to  others 
it  will  appear  that  however  distant  the  point  gained 
in  his  lifetime  may  have  been  from  his  ideal,  still 
the  cause  to  which  he  rendered  such  abundant 
service  was  already  gained  before  he  died." 


1895]  speeches  in  Parliament  305 

Professor  J  ebb  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  on  February 
14th. 

In  February  the  Scotch  University  Commission 
Ordinances  were  again  the  subject  of  debate.  Jebb 
spoke  on  the  28th,  and  was  told  that  his  speech  had 
won  several  votes  for  his  side.  A  friend  in  Edinburgh 
wrote : 

"  From  three  different  sources  I  heard  to-day  of  your 
speech  as  the  feature  of  the  debate.  One  of  my  corre- 
spondents writes — *  Jebb  made  a  lovely  speech,  putting  his 
points  with  the  most  beautiful  delicacy  and  precision.'  We 
owe  you  a  world  of  thanks,  and  not  now  for  the  first  time.'* 

The  vote  went  against  the  Government  by  a 
good  majority. 

When  the  Welsh  Church  Disestablishment  Bill 
came  up  for  the  second  reading  in  March,  Jebb 
again  made  one  of  his  characteristic  speeches.  One 
point  he  dwelt  on  was  the  exact  meaning  of  a  word 
frequently  used  in  the  debate. 

"  Having  followed  these  debates  with  great  care,  he 
thought  that  the  word  'nation'  had  been  used  in  two 
different  senses,  and  that  for  the  purpose  of  the  present 
argument  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  distinguish 
between  them.  '  Nation '  in  the  primary  sense  referred 
to  the  origin  of  a  people  ;  it  was  equivalent  to  '  race.'  No 
well-informed  person  would  deny  that  Wales  contained  the 
elements  of  a  separate  nationality,  and  that  the  marks  of  a 
separate  nationality  belonged  to  the  majority  of  persons 
who  now  inhabit  Wales.  Those  marks  were — descent  from 
that  ancient  Celtic  race  who  were  the  earliest  inhabitants 
of  this  island,  the  history  and  the  geographical  conditions 
J.  M.  20 


3o6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1895 

of  Wales  having  contributed  to  preserve  a  continuous  strain 
of  British  blood  ;  a  distinct  character,  and,  to  some  extent, 
a  distinct  physical  type ;  a  language  which,  though  not 
spoken  by  all  who  call  themselves  Welsh,  was  regarded  by 
all  with  a  just  pride  and  affection  ;  a  considerable  body 
of  distinctive  customs  and  traditions.  The  great  Puritan 
poet  of  the  Commonwealth  had  described  the  Welsh  as 
*An  old  and  haughty  people,  proud  in  arms';  though  when 
he  said  '  proud  in  arms,'  Milton  probably  did  not  contem- 
plate such  a  warfare  as  was  now  being  waged.  But  *  nation  ' 
had  also  a  political  sense,  relative  to  unity  of  government 
and  allegiance ;  as,  for  example,  when  the  High  Court  of 
Parliament  was  called  'the  great  Council  of  the  nation.' 
It  was  in  this  sense  that  the  Church  was  national,  because 
it  held  a  special  relation  to  the  State,  not  because  its 
members  were  all,  by  descent,  of  one  stock.  But  the 
argument  from  nationality,  as  used  in  these  debates,  had 
implied  that  the  Welsh  were  a  separate  nation,  not  only 
in  the  racial  sense,  but  in  the  political  sense  also — that  was 
to  say,  that  they  had  a  right  to  deal  with  an  institution 
common  to  England  and  Wales  as  if  its  fate  could  be 
determined  by  Wales  alone\" 

Life  was  very  full  for  him  at  this  time.  Work 
was  incessant,  but  none  of  it  was  slave's  work.  He 
was  keenly  interested  in  its  every  aspect.  That 
illness  should  suddenly  prostrate  him  when  all  his 
energies  were  in  such  full  exercise  was  a  hard 
fortune.  On  June  6th  the  diary  records  :  ''  British 
School  at  Athens  meeting.  To-day  caught  the  chill 
with  which  my  long  illness  began." 

He  went  to  Farringford  on  the  7th  notwith- 
standing, hoping  benefit  would  come  from  the  sea 
*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Reports. 


1895]  Illness  307 

air,  but  was  forced  to  take  to  his  bed  on  arriving. 
He  never  forgot  the  devoted  care  Lady  Tennyson 
gave  him. 

To  THE  President  of  Magdalen. 

"Ashley  Gardens, 

June  i^thy  1895. 

Please  excuse  my  writing  in  pencil.  I  am  con- 
fined to    bed  with   rheumatism On   Monday   I 

was  just  able  to  travel  up  to  London  from  Farring- 
ford,  being  forced  to  go  to  Cambridge  on  Tuesday 
for  a  meeting  of  examiners.  On  Tuesday  evening, 
when  I  got  back  here,  I  was  worse  and  have  been 
in  bed  (except  for  an  hour  or  two  daily)  since  then. 
My  doctor  at  first  gave  me  hopes  of  being  able  to 
go  to  Oxford  to-morrow ;  but  my  progress  is  slow  ; 
and  this  evening  it  was  clear  that  the  thing  was 
impossible.  There  seems  to  be  a  fate  against  my 
bringing  my  wife  to  Magdalen.  She  is  as  much 
dissatisfied  as  I  am,  but  there  is  no  help  for  it. 
Illness  could  have  come  at  no  more  unfortunate 
time,  for  besides  the  visit  to  Oxford,  there  are 
engagements  on  Monday  at  the  House  of  Commons 
and  elsewhere,  which  I  may  very  likely  have  to 
break.  I  was  looking  forward  to  having  a  good 
talk  with  you  about  many  things. 

I  am  to  be  sent  to  Switzerland  or  some  place  of 
the  kind  in  July,  I  believe.  It  is  hard  to  realize 
that  there  are  moments  when  the  only  sound 
economy  of  time  is  to  be  idle  for  a  while.  I  am 
afraid  I  have  reached  such  a  moment...." 

20 — 2 


3o8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1895 

On  Tuesday,  the  i8th,  he  insisted  on  going 
down  to  the  House  to  move  an  amendment  on 
the  Welsh  Bill  with  a  view  to  preserving  the  four 
cathedrals  to  the  Welsh  Church.  He  made  a  speech 
recommending  the  amendment  to  the  consideration 
of  Mr  Asquith,  and  had  the  great  satisfaction,  after 
a  long  debate,  of  its  being  accepted.  Many  letters 
of  thanks  and  congratulation  came  to  him  on  the 
success  of  this  amendment. 

Diary  y  Wednesday,  June  \(^th.  "Went  to  Com- 
mission, but  w^as  suffering  so  much  from  acute 
rheumatism  that  I  had  to  leave  at  noon."  He 
fretted  very  much  at  not  being  able  to  get  to  the 
House  the  next  day,  which  proved  to  be  the  last 
day  of  the  Welsh  Bill  in  Committee. 

A  crisis  was  approaching  for  the  Liberal  Govern- 
ment. They  were  defeated  on  the  21st  by  a 
majority  of  seven  on  an  amendment  moved  by 
Mr  Brodrick.  On  Monday  the  resignation  of  Lord 
Rosebery's  Ministry  was  formally  announced  by 
Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  on  Wednesday  Lord 
Salisbury  accepted  office.  The  dissolution  came 
directly  after. 

J  ebb  was  well  enough  to  be  present  at  a  large 
meeting  of  the  British  School  at  Athens  on  July  9th. 
The  meeting  assembled  in  St  James's  Palace  in 
response  to  an  invitation  from  the  Prince  of  Wales 
(now  King  Edward),  who  graciously  took  the  chair. 
Of  course  money  was  urgently  wanted — it  is  wanted 
still — but  the  speeches  showed  that  in  the  course 
of  its  nine  years  of  existence  the  School,   though 


1895]  Re-election  to  Parliament  309 

contending  with  difficulties,  had  pursued  the  aims, 
and  had  in  no  small  measure  fulfilled  the  hopes,  which 
were  set  before  it  at  its  inception.  ''  Unfortunately, 
for  want  of  funds,  it  could  do  little  in  the  way  of 
exploration,"  said  Mr  Egerton,  the  British  Minister 
at  Athens,  "  and  in  this  respect  it  was  not  flattering 
to  our  national  pride  to  mark  the  contrast  with  the 
activity  of  other  schools." 

On  the  13th  of  July,  Jebb,  having  been  duly 
invited  according  to  University  etiquette  to  permit 
himself  to  be  nominated,  was  for  the  third  time 
elected,  together  with  Sir  John  Gorst,  to  represent 
the  University  in  Parliament. 

Meanwhile  the  rheumatic  attack  which  had  been 
checked,  not  cured,  returned  with  severity.  After 
sending  off  Part  I.  of  the  Secondary  Education 
Report  now  finally  revised,  he  went  to  Aix-les-Bains 
for  the  remainder  of  the  summer.  This  illness  left 
him  very  much  changed  in  appearance — not  in  the 
face,  for  that  seemed  to  grow  finer  with  every  year 
of  life — but  in  figure  he  was  never  straight  again. 
The  attack  permanently  stiffened  one  shoulder  and 
produced  a  slight  contraction  on  that  side,  which 
made  walking  for  any  considerable  distance  un- 
comfortable. In  the  course  of  his  walks,  which 
had  hitherto  been  one  of  his  chief  pleasures,  he  had 
composed  many  of  his  Greek  and  Latin  translations, 
as  well  as  the  Greek  Ode  for  Bologna,  and  most  of 
the  inscriptions  that  were  so  frequently  demanded 
of  him.      Mr  William  Clark   remembers  Professor 


3IO  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1895 

Jebb  telling  him  that  he  had  translated  almost  the 
whole  of  Abt  Vogler  in  one  long  solitary  walk, 
without  a  book.  "  I  don't  think  I  could  believe 
this,"  adds  the  Headmaster  of  Eton,  to  whom  the 
recollection  was  told,  ''of  any  other  man  that  ever 
lived." 

Some  other  method  of  exercise  had  to  be  found. 
Riding,  one  of  the  pleasures  of  his  Glasgow  days, 
was  tried  and  proved  as  little  suitable  as  walking. 
Then  he  was  advised  to  get  a  tricycle,  and  here  to 
our  delight  was  found  the  perfect  means.  He  could 
cycle  for  long  distances  with  ease  and  enjoyment. 
He  grew  very  fond  of  the  exercise  and  would  often 
join  our  cycling  parties  when  we  went  far  afield  to 
see  some  church  or  point  of  interest.  His  health 
greatly  benefited  by  so  much  fresh  air  in  cheerful 
company.  An  account  was  carefully  kept  in  his 
diary  of  each  day's  run  and  the  month's  total.  At 
the  end  of  the  year  the  numbers  were  compared  with 
those  of  the  year  before,  and  he  was  slightly  un- 
happy unless  the  latest  year  was  the  winner  in  the 
competition. 

The  baths  at  Aix  were  of  benefit  to  him  ;  and  a 
quiet  September  at  home,  of  which  the  mornings 
were  devoted  to  Ajax  and  the  evenings  to  cycling, 
completed  the  cure.  When  term  began  he  was  able 
to  do  his  University  work  and  fulfil  all  engagements 
with  no  sense  of  strain.  He  had  accepted  the 
Presidency  of  the  Teachers'  Guild  for  1896,  and  his 
first  duty  in  the  New  Year  was  to  give  an  address 
at  the  annual  conference  in  January.     In  search  of 


1896]  Letter  from  Scotland  311 

a  subject  he  consulted  an  old  friend,  Dr  Storr,  who 
wrote : 

"  I  do  not  think  you  could  improve  upon  the  old  but 
ever  new  theme  of  the  *  Humanities.'  You  need  have 
no  fear  of  the  scientists.  All  who  are  teachers  and  not 
fanatics  will  acknowledge  with  Huxley  that  literature  must 
form  the  common  basis  and — to  the  end — a  main  ingredient 
of  character.  What  I  hope  you  will  see  your  way  to  do  is 
to  treat  the  subject  in  relation  to  the  Guild,  i.e.,  to  talk  of 
the  Humanities  in  connexion  with  democracy.  We  are  a 
democratic  body,  embracing  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men  and  women ;  I  should  like  you  to  bring  out  how 
literature  and  not  science  is  the  connecting  link  between 
the  different  grades." 

On  March  i6th  Jebb  spoke  at  the  Mansion 
House  on  behalf  of  the  East  London  Church  Fund, 
at  the  request  of  Dr  G.  F.  Browne,  then  Bishop  of 
Stepney.  Oddly  enough,  this  little  speech  is  men- 
tioned in  a  letter  from  an  old  Scotch  student,  now 
a  Scotch  minister.  After  asking  an  inscription  for  a 
service  of  church  plate,  the  writer  continues : 

"  I  don't  know  whether  I  have  been  guilty  of  presump- 
tion in  this  matter.  I  passed  through  the  Greek  Class  of 
1882-83,  ^i^d  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  I  stand  related  to 
you  in  a  different  way  from  those  who  never  did  so. 

You  probably  have  no  idea  how  closely  everything 
connected  with  your  name  is  followed  with  keenest  interest 
in  many  manses  in  Scotland.  The  only  speeches  in  Parlia- 
ment that  are  read  greedily,  with  the  complaint  that  there 
are  not  more  of  them,  are  those  by  you.  Just  lately  a  stray 
copy  of  the  Church  Times  came  into  the  house  where  I  am 
staying,  and  the  first  thing  read  in  it  was  a  short  speech  by 


312  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1896 

you  at  the  Bishop  of  Stepney's  meeting.  Mr  Froude  speaks 
somewhere  of  Carlyle's  influence  over  him  as  being  more 
than  everything  else :  whatever  he  wrote  he  penned  with 
Carlyle's  judgment  before  him.  I  may  say  the  same  of 
your  influence  over  my  own  mind.  My  experience  is  not 
singular  in  this ;  I  have  heard  it  expressed  very  strongly 
by  many  others  who  have  been  as  fortunate  as  myself  in 
coming  through  the  Greek  class  in  the  years  they  did. 

I  remain, 

Yours  most  respectfully, 

John  C.  Walker." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

CONFERENCE  ON  SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  VISIT 
TO  THE  RIVIERA.  VOLUNTARY  SCHOOLS' 
GRANT  BILL.  SIR  JOHN  GORST'S  EDUCATION 
BILL.      BURIAL   GROUNDS   COMMITTEE. 

1896— 1898. 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  February  13th,  1896, 
with  Lord  Salisbury  as  Prime  Minister.  On  the  31st 
of  March,  Sir  John  Gorst,  Vice-President  of  the 
Committee  of  Council  on  Education,  introduced  an 
Education  Bill  in  a  lucid  and  able  speech.  It 
found  many  friends  among  the  organizations  devoted 
to  education.  The  National  Union  of  Teachers 
gave  it  almost  unqualified  approval,  and  indulged 
in  prophecies  of  the  good  that  would  follow  its 
adoption. 

The  fate  of  the  Bill  is  an  old  story  now.  It 
failed  then  as  other  Education  Bills  have  failed  since. 
To  attempt  to  explain  its  provisions  here  would  be 
needless,  but  something  must  be  said  of  it  as  part 
of  the  parliamentary  life  of  Richard  Jebb.  Keenly 
interested  in  its  success,  he  spoke  on  both  the  first 
and  second  readings,  the  second  speech  being  held 


314  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1896 

by  some  to  be  the  finest  he  had  yet  delivered  in  the 
House.  It  was  described  as  a  "  masterly  vindica- 
tion of  the  principle  and  scheme  of  the  Bill — all  the 
more  weighty  and  effective  because  conjoint  with  a 
considerable  amount  of  trenchant  and  independent 
criticism  of  questions  of  detail."  Mr  Haldane,  who 
rose  when  J  ebb  sat  down,  said, 

"The  House  had  listened  to  two  speeches  from  the 
benches  behind  the  Government,  both  of  them  by  remark- 
able men*,  both  of  them  characterised  by  unusual  felicity 
of  diction  and  both  in  defence  of  the  Bill,  though  in  different 
ways.  The  speech  to  which  they  had  just  listened  was  that 
of  an  honourable  member  who  represented  a  University 
constituency — the  very  hotbed  of  the  old  Toryism — but  it 
was  one  which  might  have  been  made  by  an  Old  Liberal." 

Diary,  June  22nd.  *' Mr  Balfour  announced  in 
the  House  that  the  Bill  was  withdrawn.  He  moved 
*  that  Mr  Lowther  do  now  leave  the  chain'  Debate 
closed  at  9.45  p.m.     The  Education  Bill  was  dead." 

During  the  Whitsuntide  holidays,  J  ebb  was  again 
laid  aside  by  an  attack  of  iritis.  This  affection, 
attributed  by  the  doctors  to  the  rheumatic  habit,  had 
in  his  case  a  cause  much  more  simple — namely  the 
effect  on  the  eyes  of  cycling  in  high  winds  and  rough 
weather.  When  he  protected  the  eyes,  the  attacks 
ceased  altogether  and  we  were  relieved  from  a  great 
anxiety.  His  eyes  were  really  unusually  strong  and 
serviceable.  It  was  a  diversion  in  his  illness  to 
receive  a  letter  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  either 
work  or  worry. 

^  Sir  Edward  Clarke  made  the  other  speech. 


1896]  Election  to  'The  Club'  315 

From  Sir  M.  E.  Grant  Duff. 

'''■June  lothj   1896. 

Dear  Jebb, 

You  will  have  received,  I  suppose,  ere  this  reaches 
you,  the  announcement  of  your  election  as  member  of  The 
Club  in  the  quaint  old  form  suggested  by  Gibbon,  and 
which  is  always  despatched  by  the  chairman  of  the  night... 
I  was  sorry  to  hear  last  night  from  Acton  that  you  were 
suffering  from  your  eyes.  I  am  selfish  enough  to  hope  that 
your  trouble  will  not  prevent  you  and  Mrs  Jebb  from  being 
at  Magdalen  with  the  Warrens  on  the  13th.  I  am  going 
there  with  my  daughter,  and  have  been  told  that  we  may 
expect  to  meet  you. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

M.  E.  Grant  Duff." 

This  Society  has  a  distinguished  history.  It  was 
founded  as  a  dining  club  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
and  Dr  Johnson  In  1764.  The  names  of  Its  original 
members  are  familiar  to  us  as  household  words,  and 
at  the  present  day  It  perhaps  stands  first  among 
societies  of  Its  kind  In  London.  It  possesses  two 
portraits  of  its  founders:  one  of  Sir  Joshua  presented 
by  his  niece,  the  Marchioness  of  Thomond  ;  and  one 
of  Dr  Johnson,  a  copy  of  the  Peel  portrait  in  the 
National  Gallery.  The  total  number  of  members 
down  to  1896  was  only  two  hundred  and  two. 

In  August  he  permitted  himself  a  short  holiday, 
and  we  went  to  stay  for  a  week  at  Cromer  with  our 
friend,  Mrs  Locker  Lampson.  It  was  delightful  to 
see  how  completely  for  the  time  he  forgot  the 
existence  of  such  things  as  Committees  and  Bills, 
and  even  Greek  texts ;    how  he  shared  In  all  the 


3i6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1896 

amusements  of  the  large  house-party,  the  expedi- 
tions by  day,  the  bright  talk,  the  music,  the  games 
in  the  evenings,  and  was  even  one  of  the  chief  actors 
in  the  charades — wisely  taking  the  benefit  of  a  com- 
plete rest  from  his  ordinary  occupations. 

In  October  he  was  elected  a  Member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Senate,  his  name  being  on  the  lists 
of  both  academical  parties.  The  meetings  of  the 
Council  are  held  on  Monday  morning,  which  made 
it  possible  for  him  to  attend  them  and  yet  be  in 
town  in  time  for  the  House  of  Commons.  He  also 
became  chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  Associa- 
tions interested  in  Secondary  Education. 

On  the  nth  of  November  he  went  to  London  to 
attend  the  special  Committee  on  the  Benefices  Bill, 
who  were  to  receive  a  deputation  from  the  Church 
Reform  League.  He  had  often  been  on  deputa- 
tions, but  this  was  the  first  time  it  fell  to  his  lot  to 
receive  one.  He  came  down  by  the  last  train,  gave 
a  lecture  at  noon  the  next  day  in  his  class-room, 
had  luncheon  in  his  brougham — his  wife  like  the 
wives  of  other  labouring  men  brought  it  to  him — 
and  caught  the  1.23  train  back  to  London,  where 
his  presence  was  due  at  a  meeting  of  an  educational 
committee  which  met  on  two  consecutive  days  in 
every  fortnight.  Never  had  he  known  an  autumn 
so  full  of  engagements,  both  at  Cambridge  and 
London. 

But  Christmas  was  coming.  He  attended  a 
Committee  on  the  9th  of  December,  and  on  the  loth 


1896]  Monte  Carlo  317 

we  crossed  the  Channel.  From  this  year  dates  our 
custom  of  spending  the  Christmas  vacation  always  at 
one  place.  On  the  hillside  above  Monte  Carlo  we 
found  a  hotel  that  exactly  suited  us,  sheltered  by  the 
mountain  on  three  sides,  with  the  sunny  Mediter- 
ranean on  the  one  exposed  side.  He  felt  that  here, 
if  anywhere,  was  an  escape  from  the  chills  that 
brought  on  rheumatism.  We  chose  rooms  on  the 
steep  side  of  the  hotel,  facing  south  and  furnished 
with  French  windows  opening  out  on  a  large  marble 
portico  with  broad  marble  steps — a  specially  de- 
signed burglar's  staircase  he  called  it — leading  down 
through  a  garden  filled  with  orange-trees  and  roses 
to  a  gate  which  opened  directly  on  the  road.  We 
could  go  and  come  unseen  by  the  array  of  porters 
and  boys  in  gilt  buttons  who  always  spring  to  atten- 
tion when  anyone  passes  through  the  front  entrance 
of  a  foreign  hotel.  Even  such  a  little  thing  made 
a  great  difference  in  his  comfort.  The  attack  of 
rheumatism  which  had  caused  us  to  leave  Nice  and 
seek  a  more  sheltered  spot  was  rapidly  disappearing 
when  he  wrote  to  his  sister. 

"H6tel  Prince  de  Galles, 

PRES    D'UNE   MONTAGNE, 

/(?  31  Dec.^  1896. 
Ma  tres-chere  sgeur, 

Quand  je  serai  de  re  tour  en  Angleterre, 
je  vous  enverrai  ma  contribution  pour  notre  cher 
indigent.  En  ce  moment,  ma  tres-chere  soeur,  je  me 
trouve  dans  un  etat  de  pauvrete  si  penible  que  je 


3i8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1896 

ne  puis  pas  le  faire — du  tout,  du  tout,  du  tout ! 
Vous  ne  voudriez  pas,  je  le  crois  bien,  me  livrer  aux 
petits  soins  de  radministration  monegasque. 

Recevez  nos  voeux  les  plus  chaleureux  pour  le 
jour  de  Tan — vous  et  vos  chers  enfans.  Mon  neveu 
ma  ecrlt  de  lettres  charmantes,  que  je  garde  dans 
mon  livre  de  '  Servanda.'  Je  souffre  du  rhumatisme, 
et  j'emploie  depuis  mardi  les  services  d'un  masseur 
suedois,  qui  me  fait  pousser  les  cris  d'un  pore  trans- 
fixe.  Alors,  quand  le  suedois  est  parti,  Mde.  ma 
femme,  qui  occupe  la  chambre  voisine,  se  presente  a 
la  porte,  et  m'accable  d'injures  pour  mon  peu  de 
heroisme.  Elle  me  raconte  Thistoire  du  jeune 
homme  de  Sparte,  qui  portait  le  renard  sous  son 
manteau.  Mais  que  voulez-vous  ?  Moi,  je  n'appar- 
tiens  pas  a  Sparte  ;  je  suis  d'Athenes. 

Nous  comptons  de  quitter  cet  endroit  charmant 
samedi  le  15  Janvier.  Ici  se  trouvent  a  present  le 
Speaker,  le  Chief  Justice,  et  tout  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  plus 
respectable  ;  rien  ne  nous  manque  qu'un  archeveque. 
Ta  belle-sceur  te  salue  et  tes  enfans. 

Ton  frere  devoue, 

Richard." 

He  called  the  hotel  our  **  Villa  on  the  Riviera" 
and  always  looked  forward  with  pleasure  to  the 
weeks  to  be  spent  there.  A  vivid  picture  comes  to 
me  now  of  his  gay  spirits  when  the  journey  was  over 
and  we  took  possession  of  our  accustomed  rooms. 
"  What  is  the  first  thing  we  do  '^.  We  unpack. 
Allons ! "   he  would  say.      The  habit  of  a  pleasure 


1897]  Monte  Carlo  319 

was  to  him  one  of  the  most  delightful  things  about 
It.  We  always  followed  as  exactly  as  possible  the 
routine  of  the  year  before.  We  knew  the  first  walk 
we  would  take  in  the  morning,  the  particular  cafd 
that  would  have  the  privilege  of  giving  us  tea  after 
our  first  concert,  the  newspapers  we  would  order. 
Even  our  arrangement  with  the  hotel  went  on  year 
after  year  with  no  fresh  word  said.  In  our  walks  one 
villa  had  struck  us  as  particularly  suited  to  our  tastes, 
and  we  decided  to  buy  it  when  we  were  old  and  he 
had  resigned  his  Professorship.  So  it  was  another 
custom,  early  in  our  visit,  to  go  past  the  villa  and 
inspect  It  closely,  to  see  if  it  was  occupied  or  empty, 
and  if  the  garden  was  still  trim  and  well  kept.  It 
stood  high  on  the  hill  and  was  easily  seen  from  the 
windows  of  the  railway  carriage.  On  our  return 
journey  we  always  looked  up  over  the  olive  trees 
to  catch  a  last  glimpse  of  It  and  to  bid  It  good-bye. 

Professor  J  ebb  spoke  in  the  House  on  the 
Voluntary  Schools'  Grant  Bill  in  February  1897. 
The  speech  attracted  considerable  notice  at  the  time, 
and  called  forth  a  bit  of  his  parliamentary  biography. 
The  Daily  Telegraph  said  : 

"Professor  Jebb  entered  the  House  at  a  rather  late  period 
of  life.  He  remained  silent  and  in  the  background  for 
some  time,  but  one  night  he  got  up  in  an  empty  House  and 
delivered  a  speech  on  Scotch  Universities'  Ordinances. 
The  papers  made  no  report  of  it  and  three  fourths  of  the 
Members  never  heard  a  word  of  it ;  but  if  a  man  makes 
a  good  speech,  it  gets  around  pretty  quickly.  The  few- 
people  who  heard  him  were  immensely  struck  with  his 


320  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1897 

speech,  and,  from  that  time,  his  reputation  was  made. 
Last  night  he  delivered  the  ablest  defence  of  the  Govern- 
ment, slightly  academic  in  tone,  but  clear,  bold,  and  with 
the  blessed  gift  of  originality  of  thought  and  eloquence  of 
language." 

Mr  Balfour  alluded  to  this  speech  later  in  the 
Debate. 

"  My  hon.  friend  the  Member  for  Cambridge  University 
who  spoke  on  the  first  night  of  the  introduction  of  the  Bill 
put  the  whole  argument  in  a  nutshell  when  he  reminded 
the  House  that  the  contribution  from  the  rates  (for  Volun- 
tary Schools)  was  a  good  reason  for  giving  ratepayers 
control,  and  that  contributions  from  taxes  was  a  good 
reason  for  giving  the  representatives  of  taxpayers  control, 
but  that  contributions  from  taxes  gave  no  right  to  the  rate- 
payers, and  contributions  from  the  rates  gave  no  right  to 
the  general  taxpayers." 

Jebb  spoke  again  in  the  discussion  on  the  second 
reading  of  the  Bill  on  February  i6th.  The  reading 
was  carried  by  a  large  majority.  Certainly  this 
session  there  vi^ere  no  grounds  for  the  accusation 
so  often  brought  against  him  that  he  spoke  too 
seldom  in  the  House.  He  spoke  at  some  length 
in  favour  of  the  Women's  Suffrage  Bill,  brought  in 
by  Mr  Faithfull  Begg  on  February  3rd. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

^^  March  16,   1897. 

You  will  have  seen  that  I  am  reported  in  the 
Times  leader  to-day  as  having  intervened  effectively 
in  the  debate  last  night.     The  question  was  whether 


1897]  In  the  Lobby  321 

Teachers  in  Voluntary  Schools  should  be  put  on 
the  new  Associations.  Courtney  went  against  the 
Government  as  usual,  urging  that  they  should  be  put 
on,  to  our  inconvenience.  Hobhouse  backed  him 
up.  This  was  too  much  for  your  Ancient,  who 
came  to  the  rescue.  But  the  most  interesting  thing 
happened  in  the  lobby  at  the  division.  A.  and  B. 
taunted  me  with  having  contradicted  Balfour,  because 
I  said  that  the  only  function  of  the  Associations 
under  the  Bill  was  to  advise  the  Department  about 
distributing  the  grant,  whereas  Balfour  (they  alleged) 
had  said  that  the  Associations  were  to  have  other 
educational  functions  also.  Of  course  I  knew  I  had 
not  contradicted  Balfour's  view ;  for  what  Balfour 
and  I  had  both  said  (in  the  previous  debates)  was 
merely  that  the  Associations  would  indirectly  tend  to 
educational  efficiency  and  zeal  by  bringing  the 
managers  together  and  leading  them  to  compare 
notes  about  their  schools,  and  to  take  common  coun- 
sel and  action.  But  I  thought  I  would  ask  Balfour 
himself  in  the  lobby.  So  I  said  (in  effect)  to  him  : 
*  Are  you  conscious  of  any  conflict  between  our 
views  ?'  His  answer  was  remarkable  and  gave  me 
extreme  pleasure.  He  replied  : — *  Absolutely  not  : 
you  have  seen  eye  to  eye  with  me  all  through  about 
this,  so  much  so,  that  on  the  first  night,  when  you 
spoke,  I  said  to  someone  on  the  Treasury  Bench, 
**  he  must  have  seen  the  Bill  before  "  :  had  you  seen 
it?'  I  said,  *  No.'  And  then  he  went  on: — *  It 
is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me,  as  my  statement  was 
found  fault  with  as  wanting  in  clearness.' " 

J.  M.  21 


322  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1897 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"House  of  Commons, 

March  iZth,  1897. 

You  may  have  seen  that  I  have  said  a  few  words 
again  yesterday.  I  am  reported  verbatim.  The 
reason  I  spoke  was  that  Hobhouse,  Gray,  Courtney, 
and  Lord  Cranborne  were  all  urging  the  amendment 
from  our  side  against  the  Government  and  I  wanted 

to  redress  the  balance  a  little We  were  asked  to 

the  Hicks  Beach's  evening  party  but  I  could  not 
go  because  my  toast  at  the  Irish  dinner  came  last 
and  I  got  away  only  at  1 1 .  30.  I  did  adequately  in 
my  little  speech  there — no  more. 

Yesterday  Lord  Stanley  came  to  me  in  the 
House  and  said  that  I  was  wanted  to  go  down  to 
Manchester  and  speak  at  a  large  meeting  about  the 
Education  Bill,  as  Sir  H.  Fowler's  speech  some 
days  before  had  done  mischief.  I  took  till  to-day  to 
consider.  Gorst  strongly  advises  me  to  go.  He 
thinks  it  is  an  opportunity  to  help.  I  wish  I  had 
you  here  to  consult.  I  don't  think  I  could  exist  here 
long  without  you.  Don't  come  up  on  Thursday 
evening,  though,  if  you  feel  Mike  staying,'  as  you 
would  say.  The  Ancient  will  understand  and  he 
does  not  want  to  spoil  his  wife's  outing." 

Considerable  friction  had  existed  for  some  time 
between  members  of  the  clergy  and  dissenting  bodies 
concerning  burial  rites  in  the  parish  churchyards. 
It  was  thought  that  if  a  Committee  were  appointed 
with  full  powers  to  take  evidence  and  enquire  into 


1897]         Chairman  of  Burials    Committee  323 

the  facts  and  also  the  law  of  the  subject,  they  might 
arrive  at  a  reasonable  settlement  acceptable  to  both 
parties  in  the  House.  Lord  Cranborne  (now  Lord 
Salisbury)  wrote  pressing  J  ebb  to  be  Chairman  of 
this  Select  Committee. 

"  Now  comes  the  naming  of  the  members  and,  most 
important  of  all,  the  Chairman.  In  this  important  position 
we  want  not  only  a  man  of  distinction  but  a  friend,  and  a 
man  of  courage  without  being  a  firebrand.  As  you  fulfil 
these  most  difficult  conditions,  may  I  beg  you  to  accept 
the  post.     I  have  full  powers  to  act.     Now  please  do  1 " 

J  ebb  was  glad  to  be  of  use,  and  willingly  accepted 
the  position. 

In  July  when  the  Queen  completed  sixty  years 
of  her  reign,  the  Universities  presented  addresses 
of  congratulation  to  Her  Majesty.  That  from 
Cambridge  was  first  drafted  by  Professor  J  ebb,  and 
then  submitted  to  the  Master  of  Trinity  for  criticism  ; 
the  final  form  was  determined  upon  by  Jebb. 

A  statutory  Commission  was  appointed  this  sum- 
mer by  the  Government  to  make  recommendations 
with  respect  to  the  reconstitution  of  the  University 
of  London.  Lord  Davy  was  appointed  Chairman 
and  Professor  Jebb  one  of  the  Commissioners.  He 
was  already  a  Fellow  of  the  University  and  took 
much  interest  in  the  new  scheme. 

In  August  he  was  free  to  turn  again  for  a  time 
to  scholarship.  He  was  eager  to  study  the  newly 
discovered  fragments  of  the  Greek  poet  Bacchylides, 
sent  to  him  by  Mr  Kenyon  of  the  British  Museum, 

21 — 2 


324  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1897 

who  was  preparing  them  for  publication.  When 
the  fragments  were  put  together,  the  manuscript  was 
so  full  of  gaps  that  it  presented  a  series  of  riddles 
for  an  acute  mind  to  solve,  rather  than  poems  to  be 
enjoyed;  and  J  ebb  always  liked  thinking  out  riddles. 
He  also  had  in  hand  new  editions  of  the  first  two 
volumes  of  his  Sophocles,  and  an  introduction  to  the 
Greek  Text  of  that  author  which  he  was  preparing 
for  publication. 

Of  our  week-end  visits  this  summer  that  to 
Somerhill,  once  the  home  of  Horace  Walpole  and 
now  the  residence  of  Mr  d'Avigdor  Goldsmid,  was 
particularly  interesting.  It  was  the  hop-picking 
season,  and  our  host  took  us  to  the  fields  where  men, 
women,  and  children  were  gathering  the  graceful 
clusters  into  huge  baskets,  and  then  to  the  machine- 
house  where  the  remorseless  machinery  was  crush- 
ing their  airy  beauty  into  solid  masses  of  mere 
material.  Professor  J  ebb,  who  had  never  before 
been  among  hop  vines,  spent  every  disengaged 
moment  in  the  fields,  watching  the  workers  with 
eyes  which  saw  the  poetry  even  more  than  the 
drudgery  of  their  task. 

When  evening  came  and  we  were  all  commanded 
to  write  Acrostics,  his  was  suggested  by  the  day's 
experience. 

"  While  life  is  in  my  First !  what  beauty  decks  -\ 

That  slender  shape !     But  death  transforms  the  life 

To  power  which  cheers  or  darkens,  builds  or  wrecks, 
Makes  rich  or  poor,  gives  strength,  peace,  weakness, 
strife. 


1898]  An  Acrostic  325 

In  days  gone  by,  my  Second  lent  her  name 

To  one  whose  daughter  all  the  years  shall  bless. 

My  First  adorns  my  Second's  crown  of  fame ; 
My  First  completes  my  Second's  loveliness." 
Lights. 

1.  A  being,  this,  whose  dignity 

Hangs  on  the  number  of  his  feet : 
With  two,  he  is  a  wretched  drudge ; 
With  four,  smart,  valuable  and  fleet. 

2.  Athletes  and  bathers  used  to  think  me  good ; 
And  still  I  can  supply  both  light  and  food. 

3.  Fierce  tribesman  of  the  hills,  a  clear,  stern  voice 
Calls  thee  :  Be  friend  or  foe,  but  make  thy  choice. 

4.  A  mighty  master  bore  his  people's  name, 
And  linked  that  people's  glory  with  his  fame. 

It  was  a  curious  accident  that  when  he  chanced 
this  same  evening  to  open  a  book  on  the  drawing- 
room  table,  the  Letters  of  William  Cory,  the  first 
words  his  eye  fell  upon  were  these  : 

''May  12th,  1886. 

I  find  I  can  teach  much  better  than  I  could  twenty  or 
thirty  years  ago,  partly  because  I  have,  by  reading,  learnt 
inore  English  and  have  profited  by  the  wonderful  supe- 
riority of  the  J  ebb  race  of  scholars  to  those  of  my  own  day." 

In  the  beginning  of  1898  a  good  deal  of  his  time 
was  taken  up  by  classical  affairs  in  the  University 
and  in  particular  by  the  reform  of  the  Classical 
Tripos.  He  had  presided  at  a  last  meeting  of  the 
Classical  Tripos  Committee  in  October  1897  when 


326  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

the  Report  was  signed.  This  Report  was  now 
submitted  to  the  Classical  Board  for  consideration 
by  that  larger  body.  The  meetings  were  many  and 
long.  That  on  March  ist,  says  the  Diary,  lasted 
from  2.15  p.m.  to  5.15.  As  Jebb  had  to  be  in 
London  that  night,  this  note  is  probably  the  expres- 
sion of  some  impatience. 

He  was  now  a  member  also  of  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee on  Law,  one  of  sixteen  additional  members 
put  on  when  the  two  Benefices  Bills  were  referred 
to  this  Committee.  He  was  present  at  the  first 
meeting  for  the  discussion  of  these  Bills  on  March 
15th.  Thereafter  meetings  were  held  twice  a  week, 
from  noon  until  the  House  met  in  the  afternoon. 

Education  was  still  before  the  House.  His  first 
speech  in  1898  was  to  second  a  motion  of  Sir  John 
Lubbock  proposing  to  assimilate  the  English  Edu- 
cation Code  in  some  respects  to  that  adopted  in 
Scotland,  where  the  elementary  schools  seem  to 
produce  better  results  than  in  England.  Sir  John 
Gorst  opposed  the  motion,  explaining  that  in 
Scotland  these  schools  had  older  children  and  better 
teachers.  After  a  long  discussion  the  motion  was 
withdrawn.  Jebb  also  spoke  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Church  Defence  Committee  on  March  29th,  to 
second  the  first  resolution  proposed  by  Lord 
Cranbrook.  This  resolution  assured  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  hearty  support  of  the  Committee, 
in  its  determination  to  pass  the  Benefices  Bill 
into  law.  In  ending  his  speech,  he  drew  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  first  Benefices  Bill  was  intro- 


1898]  Benefices  Bill  327 

duced  by  a  private  member,  Mr  Lyttelton.  Certain 
modifications  of  the  Government  measure  were  in- 
corporated into  it  from  Mr  Lyttelton's  Bill,  though 
not  of  such  a  character  as  in  any  way  to  alter  its 
scope  or  general  nature.  "I  advert  to  this  fact,"  he 
added,  ''  because  I  think  it  is  fair  to  remember  that 
the  efforts  of  private  members,  mostly  members  of  the 
Church  Parliamentary  Party,  for  several  years  back, 
have  not  been  wasted — the  efforts  they  have  devoted 
to  bringing  this  subject  forward.  I  can  say  that, 
because  I  am  not  one  who  has  borne  any  leading  part 
in  those  endeavours,  although  I  have  always  most 
strenuously  supported  them.  You  may  remember 
that  in  1896  a  private  Bill  on  Church  Benefices  was 
brought  in  by  Lord  Cranborne.  It  passed  success- 
fully through  the  Standing  Committee  on  Law  ;  we 
thought  it  had  almost  entered  harbour,  but  it  was 
lost  on  the  report  stage  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Happily,  this  year,  it  is  a  Government  Bill  which 
will  come  to  the  trial  of  the  report  stage  in  the 
House,  and  there  should  be  little  doubt  that  it  will 
be  passed  into  law." 

The  Easter  vacation  was  spent  by  J  ebb  at  Cam- 
bridge in  a  persistent  struggle  against  an  attack  of 
rheumatism  which  he  sought  to  cure  by  cycling.  The 
remedy  was  painful,  but  he  was  of  the  stuff  that 
makes  martyrs.  ''  C.  and  I  cycled  round  Grant- 
chester,  very  painful,"  says  the  diary  of  April  7th, 
and  on  the  8th,  **  C.  and  I  cycled  on  Barton  road. 
My  rheumatism,  though  still  bad,  was  not  quite  so 
bad  as  yesterday."     At  first  the  exercise  seemed  to 


328  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

promise  a  cure ;  but  when  rain  came  later,  the  record 
is  *' rheumatism  worse  again  to-day — a  disappoint- 
ment after  the  late  improvement.  Cycled  again 
with  C.  but  in  great  discomfort  from  pain  in  left 
side."  Recovery,  though  slow,  came  before  Parlia- 
ment required  his  presence  in  town. 

The  Burial  Grounds  Committee,  which  had  been 
appointed  at  the  end  of  the  last  session,  met  for  the 
first  time  on  April  26th.  Professor  J  ebb  was  elected 
chairman  and  other  preliminaries  were  settled. 
Many  meetings  were  held,  the  last  being  on  July 
27th,  when  the  report  was  signed.  How  the  Bill 
fared  is  told  by  Mr  Carvell  Williams  in  a  letter 
written  in  1905. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Times. 

^^  December  iph. 

Sir, 

I  should  like  to  bear  my  testimony  in  your 
columns  to  the  conciliatory  spirit  manifested  by  the  late 
Sir  Richard  Jebb  in  the  conduct  of  the  inquiry  in  1898 
into  the  alleged  grievances  of  Nonconformists  arising  out 
of  the  operation  of  the  Burial  Acts.  Under  his  courteous 
chairmanship  it  was  possible  to  collect  a  large  amount  of 
evidence  of  so  conclusive  a  character  that  Mr  Jebb — he 
was  not  Sir  Richard  then — drafted  the  report,  much  to 
my  surprise,  in  such  a  way  that  its  statements  and  pro- 
posals could  be  assented  to  by  the  Church  and  Conservative 
and  the  Nonconformist  sections  of  the  committee. 

Subsequently  the  late  Government  brought  in  a  Bill 
which  adopted  in  their  entirety  the  committee's  recom- 
mendations, which  was  carried  without  opposition.  Since 
it  came  into  operation  in  1900  there  has  been  a  marked 


1898]  Letter  from  Mr  C.    Williams  329 

diminution  of  the  difficulties  previously  experienced  in 
providing  new  cemeteries ;  and  when  the  vested  interests 
respected  by  the  Act  have  died  out  there  will  be  a  further 
abolition  of  clerical  burial  fees  in  cemeteries,  ministers  of 
all  sorts  being  paid  only  for  services  actually  rendered. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Carvell  Williams." 


CHAPTER    XV. 

DEATH  OF  MR  GLADSTONE.  SPEECH  ON  THE 
RATING  OF  CLERGYMEN.  LETTERS.  ROMANES 
LECTURE.  WAR.  CONSULTATION'S  COMMITTEE. 
KNIGHTHOOD. 

1898 — 1900. 

On  May  1 9th  a  great  light  went  out.  Mr  Gladstone 
died  at  Hawarden  in  his  89th  year.  The  House 
adjourned  that  day  in  respect  to  his  memory.  The 
next  day  a  motion  was  passed  for  a  public  funeral 
and  a  monument  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Club, 
May  28M,   1898. 

Behold!   I  enclose  certain  cards  and  also  an 

invitation  from  the  X.'s  for  Monday,  when  we  are 
engaged  to  dine  with  the  Priestleys :  so  I  have 
written  (not  on  Club  paper  but  on  yours  and  in  a 
ladylike  hand)  and  declined  the  X.'s.  Don't  you 
bless   me  '^. 

Went  to  Westminster  Hall  :  very  impressive  in 
its  simplicity :    stayed  over  an  hour,  watching  the 


1898]  Financial  Grievance  of  Clergy  331 

crowd.    Coming  back  I  was  stopped  by  the  Marquis 

of in  a  pot  hat  and  smoking  a  cigar,  who  asked 

me  about  it,  and  remarked  that  he  thought  Lord 
Salisbury  had  said  the  right  thing  about  '  the  great 
Christian  Man' — *  because,  if  he  had  said  more,  it 
would  have  looked  like  humbug.'  Simple,  but  true 
and  sound  criticism.  I  thought  it  very  characteristic 
of  the  better  side  of  the  English  of  his  class." 

On  June  6th  the  second  reading  of  the 
Finance  Bill  came  up  for  discussion  in  the  House, 
and  J  ebb  spoke  earnestly  of  the  serious  injustice 
suffered  by  the  clergy  under  the  present  system 
of  rating,  considering  the  great  fall  in  the  value 
of  tithe.  ''Not  until  it  was  disproved  that  the 
clergy  suffered  under  an  exceptional  grievance,  such 
as  was  suffered  by  no  other  branch  of  the  com- 
munity, could  it  be  denied  that  it  was  their  right  to 
come  to  that  House  and  ask  for  the  redress  of  a 
great  wrong.  The  clergy  did  not  come  in  forma 
pauperis.  They  asked  for  their  bare  rights  as  citizens 
— and  nothing  more.  The  wholly  exceptional  burdens 
under  which  they  laboured  must  interfere  with  their 
opportunities  and  with  the  power  of  discharging  their 
duties.  They  must  also  interfere  with  their  energy." 
He  spoke  strongly  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  able 
men  willing  to  enter  a  profession  so  overburdened. 
"Clergymen  cannot  afford  to  send  their  sons  to  the 
University  so  commonly  as  in  former  days,  nor,  when 
they  did  come  up,  could  the  sons  afford  to  choose 
their  father's  profession." 


332  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

The  London  University  Bill  was  carried  on  June 
15th  without  a  division.  Jebb  was  precluded  from 
speaking  on  it,  as  he  was  one  of  the  members  of 
the  Commission  to  be  appointed.      The  Times  said  : 

"It  would  have  been  gratifying  to  hear  Mr  Jebb's  vindi- 
cation of  a  Bill  which  he  approves  so  heartily  that  he  has 
undertaken  the  arduous  though  unpaid  duty  of  framing  the 
system  under  which  it  is  to  be  carried  out  in  detail." 

On  the  20th  he  was  one  of  a  number  of  members 
of  Parliament  who  went  to  Portsmouth  on  a  visit  of 
inspection  to  the  dockyard ;  he  much  enjoyed  this 
experience. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

''June  20th,  1898. 

Went  to  Portsmouth  and  saw  everything; 

fully  qualified  to  command  modern  warship.  Awful 
hay-fever  in  train  on  Sunday, — and  to-day  too  :  it 
was  the  one  drawback  to  my  pleasure  in  the  trip. 
What  a  plague  it  is;  last  year  I  had  hardly  anything 
of  it. 

The  Benefices  Bill  drags  its  weary  length  along. 
I  was  paired  till  9  p.m.  and  have  already  had  one 
division  this  evening  :  will  have  more 

Your  most  affectionate 

R.  C.  Jebb,  R.N." 

To  HIS  Wife. 

*'July  12th,  1898. 

After  a  long  day  of  toil,  I  am  going  to  indulge 
myself  in  the  luxury  of  writing  to  my  wife.     I  went 


1898]  Meeting  at  Toynbee  Hall  333 

yesterday  evening  after  an  early  dinner  at  the  House 
to  Toynbee  Hall  by  the  Underground,  arriving 
there  at  7.40.  There  was  a  large  drawing-room 
meeting  of  representative  people  interested  in  the 
Pupil  Teacher  question, — including  Mr  McCarthy, 
the  Chairman  of  the  Birmingham  School  Board.  I 
did  not  make  an  opening  speech,  but  only  a  few 
short  remarks — as  the  time  was  so  short — and  then 
turned  on  the  first  speaker,  Mr  Ernest  Gray,  M.  P. 
(Johnny's  friend).  About  five  or  six  other  people 
spoke,  and  we  finished  soon  after  ten  o'clock.  Be- 
fore leaving  Toynbee  Hall — in  fact  while  talking  to 
Mr  McCarthy — I  realised  the  awful  fact  that  I 
had  NOT  GOT  MY  LATCHKEY.  And  I  had  to  go 
back  to  the  House  till  12  !  When  released  from  my 
duties  there,  I  hurried  to  Sloane  Street,  where  I 
arrived  at  12.15.  Knocked  and  rang.  No  answer. 
Knocked  and  rang  again.  At  length  Hanksius  ap- 
peared in  deshabille,  and  I  made  my  excuses  for 
having  called  him  up.  He  was  angelic,  and  this 
morning  gave  me  another  latchkey — for  mine  was 
not  to  be  found. 

I  went  to  my  Committee  this  morning.  We  sat 
from  12  till  4,  with  20  minutes  for  luncheon,  and 
agreed  on  a  good  many  points  for  the  Report. — Then 
I  had  to  write  out  a  long  revised  memorandum  on 
those  points  for  the  printers,  which  took  me  till  about 
5.45.  Then  went  (after  a  division)  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  was  in  time  to  hear  the  Duke  defend 
Johnny.  (I  was  in  the  Commons'  gallery.)  It  was 
admirably  done — loyal,  chivalrous,  generous,  and  all 


334  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

this  without  concealing  his  disapproval  of  what  Gorst 
had  said  (quoting  from  an  Inspector)  against  squires 
and  parsons.  Then  Lord  Londonderry  got  up, 
and,  after  congratulating  Johnny  on  having  such  a 
defender,  pitched  into  him  with  great  severity.  I 
heard  the  noble  Marquis  say  to  a  friend  as  he  left 
the  House  that  the  onslaught  on  Voluntary  Schools 
had  *  made  his  blood  boil.'  Next  came  Lord  Halifax 
with  a  few  words,  and  Lord  Kimberley  finished  the 
debate.  All  this  time  Johnny  (by  his  right  as  a  Privy 
Councillor)  was  on  the  steps  of  the  throne, — at  first 
standing,  afterwards  sitting.  I  saw  'Toby,  M.P.' 
who  writes  the  Punch  letter,  in  the  gallery,  watching 
him.  It  was  a  very  interesting,  almost  a  dramatic 
scene.  The  net  result  of  it  will  be  to  make  the 
whole  affair  seem  bigger.  The  House  of  Lords  was 
crowded,  at  the  bar  and  in  the  Commons'  gallery, 
with  visitors  from  the  other  chamber,  and  there  were 
many  ladies.  The  papers  will  have  leading  articles. 
But  I  think  Johnny  is  all  right:  though  there  will  be 
a  great  deal  of  talk. 

Balfour  came  and  sat  down  by  me  in  the  Tea 
Room  yesterday,  and  talked  in  a  very  cordial 
way.  He  certainly  is  gifted  with  a  great  charm  of 
manner. 

To-morrow  I  go  with  Boscawen  to  Tunbridge 
Wells,  to  stay  the  night.  I  have  got  all  the  bones 
for  my  speech. 

The  Report  will,  I  see,  be  a  heavy  job.  They 
have  settled  now  that  I  am  to  present  it  on  Monday, 
the  25th  :  some  of  them  could  not  come  on  Friday, 


1898]  Meeting  at  Charterhouse  335 

the   22nd.      That  means   that   I  shall    not  be  free 
before  July  31st." 

To  HIS  Wife. 

''July  22nd,  1898. 

I  was  so  glad  to  get  your  letter  this  morning.  I, 
too,  had  a  hard  day  yesterday.  At  first  I  had  meant 
to  give  up  going  to  Godalming  for  the  meeting  of 
the  Charterhouse  General  Board,  but  in  the  morning 
I  determined  to  go,  as  I  had  sent  off  the  first  part 
of  my  Report  to  the  printers  on  Wednesday  after- 
noon, and  could  not  finish  the  rest  until  a  meeting 
of  the  Church  members  of  the  Committee  had  been 
held,  which  was  fixed  for  5.30  p.m.  yesterday.  So 
I  went  by  the  10.15  a.m.  train  from  Waterloo  to 
Godalming,  and  got  there  at  11.55.  The  General 
Board  met  at  12.15.  Haig  Brown  was  in  the  chair, 
and  Rendall,  the  new  Headmaster,  was  there.  After 
lunching  with  the  Kendalls  (she  is  nice),  I  returned  to 
town  with  another  Governor,  Lord  Rollo — a  pleasant 
elderly  gentleman,  once  at  Trinity,  who  had  been 
everywhere  on  the  Riviera  apparently,  except  at  the 
'Mountain,'  which  we  never  mentioned.  The  train 
was  only  about  half  an  hour  late,  which  is  good  for  the 
South  Western,  and  I  was  at  the  House  by  5.  After 
tea,  we  had  our  meeting  at  5.30, — Lord  Cranborne  in 
the  chair, — and  decided  on  the  scheme  for  commuting 
ecclesiastical  fees  in  cemeteries  which  we  are  to 
support.  Then  I  went  to  my  secluded  gallery  (in 
which  I  am  now  writing),  and  worked  at  my  Report 
from  7  till   11.30  (after  tea  and  toast,   for  I   knew 


33^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

that  dinner  would  make  me  too  dyspeptic,  and  I 
had  practically  dined  at  luncheon).  My  work  was 
frequently  interrupted  by  divisions,  but  fortunately 
we  were  usually  Noes,  and  from  the  No  lobby  you 
can  get  into  my  gallery  directly  you  have  passed  the 
tellers,  without  waiting  for  'Unlock.'  At  11.30  I 
had  sent  off  my  ms.  (the  last  batch)  in  a  registered 
letter  to  the  printers,  and  went  to  the  smoking  room, 
where  I  had  a  cigar,  and  met  my  dear  old  Scotch 
friends  X.  came  to  talk  to  me.  He  said  one  thing 
that  interested  me.  The  Government  want  to  bring 
in  a  Bill  for  a  Roman  Catholic  University  for  Ireland, 
but  would  be  glad  (X.  thought)  if  private  members 
of  some  standing  would  give  them  a  lead  ;  and  X. 
proposed  that  he,  Courtney,  I,  and  perhaps  one  or 
two  others,  should  bring  in  such  a  Bill.  We  should 
be  assured  of  Balfour's  support.  We  are  to  talk 
about  it  in  the  autumn.     I  like  the  idea. 

I  have  been  working  all  the  morning  at  correcting 
my  proofs,  and  have  sent  off  the  first  batch.  More 
will  come  this  evening,  but  I  can  dine  all  right 
to-day." 

'' Tuesday,  July  26th,   1898. 

I  was  so  glad  to  get  your  letter  this  morning, 
and  I  wrote  at  once  to  Lord  Walslngham,  to  say 
that  we  should  be  delighted  to  see  him  from  August 
23rd  to  26th. 

My  report  was  very  well  received  by  both  sides: 
Indeed,  I  am  very  much  gratified  by  the  cordial  things 
'  An  alias  for  whisky  and  soda. 


1898]  Burials  Bill  Committee  337 

that  have  been  said  to  me  by  Nonconformists  and 
Churchpeople  alike.  The  publication  of  the  summary 
of  our  recommendations  in  the  Times  to-day  was  a 
piece  of  sharp  practice  on  the  part  of  their  lobby 
correspondent,  who  must  have  obtained  possession 
of  the  document,  with  *  Private  and  Confidential' 
printed  on  it.  Indignation  is  felt  by  our  Committee 
as  a  whole,  but  we  fear  that  some  member  of  the 
body  may  have  been  indiscreet ;  it  is  improbable  that 
the  printers  are  to  blame.  Other  Committees  have 
suffered  from  the  same  cause,  and  the  notice  of  the 
House  has  often  been  drawn  to  it,  but  no  way  of 
preventing  the  evil  has  been  discovered.  C.  moved, 
to-day,  an  addition  to  the  Report  which  caused  the 
first  division  that  has  occurred  ;  but  there  was  no 
possibility  of  preventing  it.  We  (the  Churchmen 
on  the  Committee)  would  have  been  in  a  difficulty  if 
we  had  resisted  him,  as  he  is  our  leader  in  the  House. 
I  did  what  I  could  to  avert  the  division,  but  in  vain, 
though  I  was  supported  by  the  real  feeling  of  our 
majority.  To-morrow  we  meet  (probably  for  the 
last  time),  to  settle  the  question  about  fees  and  com- 
pensation. This  is  the  real  crux,  and  on  this  it  is 
impracticable  to  obtain  unanimity.  Still, as  no  minority 
report  has  been  presented,  our  report  will  go  to  the 
House  as  unanimous,  and  the  division  of  feeling  on 
certain  points  will  be  formally  expressed  only  when 
the  Government  bring  in  a  Bill  on  our  report  next 
year.  On  the  whole,  I  look  back  with  satisfaction 
on  this  piece  of  work.  Both  sides  have  expressed 
to  me  in  warm  terms  their  appreciation  of  my  work 

J.  M.  22 


338  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

as  chairman,  and  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  thinking 
that  I  have  contributed  to  the  harmonious  working 
of  our  committee,  and  to  the  arrival  at  a  result  which 
will  go  far  towards  settling  a  burning  question. 

On  Thursday  I  go  to  Croydon  to  stay  with 
Brodie  for  the  night ;  on  Friday  morning  I  give  his 
prizes,  and  on  that  afternoon  return  to  London." 

To  HIS  Wife. 

''July  27//^,  1898. 

It  is  a  relieved  and  more  or  less  cheerful  Ancient 
who  writes  to  you.  We  actually  finished  our  Re- 
port this  morning,  at  the  third  sitting,  and  at  1.15 
p.m.  (we  met  at  1 1)  our  labours  were  over!  At  the 
end,  a  vote  of  thanks  to  me  was  moved  by  a  Non- 
conformist, seconded  by  a  Churchman,  supported  by 
others  on  both  sides,  and  carried  unanimously.  I 
was  praised  for  my  draft  report, — for  my  'suavity 
and  impartiality'  In  the  Chair,  and  for  other  qualities 
too  familiar  to  my  wife  to  require  recapitulation  in 
this  place.  Aweel.  I  then  went  over  the  corrections 
etc.  with  the  Clerk  (a  process  which  I  have  performed 
daily),  and  then  the  Clerk  furnished  me,  after  the 
quaint  custom  of  the  House,  with  a  'dummy'  Report, 
— simply  a  blank  sheet  of  paper,  folded,  endorsed 
'Report'  &c.,  and  tied  with  a  green  ribbon.  This  I 
handed  in  to  the  Clerk  at  the  Table  ;  that  is  'pre- 
senting' the  Report  to  the  House.  The  real  Report, 
as  finally  passed,  will  be  circulated  next  week.  It 
will  cause  lively  interest  in  funereal  circles  through- 
out the  country.    So  my  labours  are  ended.     Every- 


1898]  Church  Congress  339 

body  says  that  there  never  was  a  committee  on  such 
a  controversial  subject  whose  proceedings  from  first 
to  last  were  so  entirely  harmonious.  Probably  I 
may  have  the  chance  of  other  such  jobs  in  the  future. 
I  feel  much  more  interest  in  the  House  since  I  have 
had  this  work  to  do,  because  it  is  not  like  making  an 
ephemeral  little  speech  ;  you  feel  that  you  are  doing 
some  solid  work  which  is  practically  useful,  and  which 
will  stand  on  record. 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  has  asked  me  to 
be  one  of  two  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
who,  with  two  peers,  are  to  serve  on  an  Educational 
Committee  of  the  National  Society  about  pupil 
teachers.  It  will  not  meet  till  the  end  of  October, 
and  as  I  already  know  the  subject  in  outline  (it  was 
the  subject  of  the  meeting  at  Toynbee  Hall),  it  will 
not  give  me  much  trouble." 

Professor  Jebb's  name  was  on  the  list  of  speakers 
at  the  Church  Congress  which  was  to  meet  this  year 
at  Bradford  at  the  end  of  September.  His  accept- 
ance of  the  invitation  had  been  conditional ;  but  letters 
came  to  him  from  the  Bishop  of  Ripon  and  others 
urging  him  to  come  : — **  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  are 
not  sure  of  either  Lord  Shaftesbury  or  Mr  Gerald 
Balfour  and  we  really  regard  you  as  our  chief 
speaker  on  the  subject.  Please — please — do  not  fail 
us,"  wrote  the  Bishop — and  he  could  not  find  it  in 
his  heart  to  refuse.  The  Diary  of  September  22nd 
says :  *'  No  time  for  cycling  to-day.  First  day  I 
have  missed  since  August  8th.     Worked  all  day  at 

22 — 2 


340  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

writing  address  for  Bradford."  The  Congress  was 
not  till  the  29th,  but  we  intended,  while  in  the 
North  and  before  the  Congress,  to  go  to  Wallington, 
the  Northumberland  seat  of  his  old  friend  Sir  George 
Trevelyan,  whom  he  had  long  wished  to  visit.  The 
subject  of  his  address  was  "Our  Imperial  Policy." 
It  is  much  too  long  to  give  even  in  epitome, 
but  the  first  paragraph  may  perhaps  interest  the 
reader. 

"  It  has  been  said  by  an  able  writer  that  the  national 
virtues  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  have  their  mainspring  in  a 
sense  of  duty,  as  those  of  the  Frenchman  in  a  power  of 
sympathy.  The  Englishman  is  perhaps  rather  apt  to  be 
unsympathetic  and  unappreciative  ;  but  he  is  resolute  in 
pursuing  the  course  which  he  believes  to  be  right.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  a  good  imaginary  dialogue  on 
Colonisation  might  be  furnished  by  a  conversation  between 
two  persons  who,  knowing  the  English  and  the  French 
type  of  character,  are  discussing  (at  some  bygone  period) 
which  of  the  two  is  the  more  likely  to  succeed  in  colonial 
enterprise  and  in  the  work  of  governing  alien  races.  How 
plausible  it  would  have  seemed  to  predict  that  the  greater 
success  would  inevitably  fall  to  the  more  sympathetic 
character,  to  that  expansive  genius  which  can  seize  and 
expound  foreign  ideas, — especially  when  joined,  as  it  is 
in  the  French,  to  a  briUiant  courage  and  to  a  gift  for 
logical  organisation.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  it  might  have 
been  urged,  would  fail,  through  his  unsympathetic  nature, 
in  understanding  or  conciliating  those  among  whom  he 
settled  or  whom  he  strove  to  rule.  Experience  has  shown, 
however,  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  qualities  do  very  well  for 
Colonial  and  Imperial  purposes.  The  truth  is  that  the 
elementary   functions   of  Government,   especially  that  of 


1898]  speech  at  Church  Congress  341 

protecting  life  and  property,  are  far  the  most  generally- 
important  to  the  governed.  Most  people  care  more  about 
having  reasonable  security  against  being  robbed  or  murdered 
than  about  meeting  with  a  graceful  appreciation  of  their 
finer  gifts.  The  Englishman  has  succeeded  by  dint  of  his 
dogged  resolve  to  maintain  law  and  order,  and  to  see  justice 
done,  wherever  he  undertakes  to  govern.  And  it  is  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  earnestness  of  the  English  character,  that, 
in  our  earliest  colonising  days,  such  enterprise  was  regu- 
larly associated  with  the  idea  of  enlarging  the  bounds  of 
Christendom.  This  is  expressly  recognised,  for  instance,  in 
the  charters  given  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  and  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  When  Barbados  was  granted  in  1627  to  Lord 
Carlisle,  the  charter  stated  that  this  was  done,  not  only 
for  the  purpose  of  'enlarging  his  Majesty's  dominions,' 
but  also  for  that  of  *  propagating  the  Christian  faith,'  Yet 
it  is  natural, — indeed,  it  was  inevitable — that  a  sense  of  the 
moral  responsibilities  which  Empire  imposes  should  have 
come  to  Englishmen  only  by  degrees, — after  the  first  rough 
work  of  planting  colonies  and  building  up  power  had  been 
done.  Only  then,  when  Englishmen  surveyed  the  result 
from  a  central  point  of  view,  could  they  adequately  realise 
the  duties  which  such  a  heritage  involves." 

In  November  he  accepted  another  invitation  to 
give  an  address. 

To  THE  President,  Magdalen  College,  Oxford. 

"Nov.  22nd,   1898. 

Many  thanks  for  your  letter.  I  feel  greatly 
honoured  by  the  Vice-Chancellor's  kind  invita- 
tion to  give  the  Romanes  Lecture,  but  I  tremble 
a  little  v^hen  I  think  of  predecessors  and  critics, 
friendly  though  I  am  sure  the  latter  will  be.     I  have 


342  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1898 

been  reading  Gladstone's  Romanes  Lecture.  The 
subject  was  too  vast,  but  the  ability  and  industry 
shown  in  it  are  truly  marvellous,  when  one  re- 
members the  time  at  which  he  wrote.  I  was  struck 
by  his  perfect  and  chivalrous  courtesy  to  the  sister 
University.     '  O  si  sic  omnia.' 

The  London  University  Commission  is  just  be- 
ginning its  sittings — and — as  you  may  suppose — 
I  have  no  superabundance  of  leisure  just  now. 
Among  other  things  a  movement  is  going  on  here 
for  modifying  our  Classical  Tripos  :  it  will  possibly 
reach  some  definite  result  next  term.  I  hear  that 
at  Oxford  something  of  the  same  kind  (or  at  least 
in  regard  to  the  same  studies)  has  been  mooted,  but 
that  no  action  has  yet  been  taken. 

I  have  an  article  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for 
October  on  the  Catalogue  of  Printed  Books  in  the 
British  Museum,  a  vox  clamantis  in  deserto — uttered 
on  behalf  of  some  men  of  letters  who  have  the  idea 
of  reprinting  very  much  at  heart.  Of  course  I  knew 
from  the  first  that  it  w^as  a  forlorn  cause  ;  but  there 
seemed  to  be  no  harm  in  stating  it." 

Many  things  came  to  an  end  on  December  9th, 
Full  Term  among  the  rest.  The  Diary  says  : 
"  Finished  the  first  draft  of  article  on  Greek  Litera- 
ture for  Greek  Aids  and  took  MS.  to  Press.  Finished 
redrafting  of  the  Regulations  for  Classical  Tripos. 
Went  to  Pitt  Press  Syndicate  at  2.30  p.m.,  and  at 
5  p.m.  to  Commemoration  Service  in  Trinity  Chapel. 
Day  ended  with  commemoration  dinner  in  Hall." 


1 898]  Election  to  Professorship  of  Royal  Academy  343 

The  next  day  we  started  on  our  journey  to  the 
Riviera.  The  first  letter  forwarded  to  him  after 
our  arrival  at  **  The  Villa"  was  very  gratifying. 
Honorary  degrees  had  long  ceased  to  be  exciting, 
but  to  be  made  Professor  of  Ancient  History  at  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Arts  was  of  quite  another  colour. 
The  distinction  gave  all  the  more  pleasure  for  being 
so  entirely  unexpected.  It  involved  neither  emolu- 
ments nor  duties  and  did  involve  several  privileges. 

"Royal  Academy, 

December  i^th^  1898. 

Sir, 

I  have  the  honour  to  inform  you  that  at  a 
meeting  held  on  the  5th  inst,  your  name  was  submitted  by 
the  President  to  fill  the  office  of  Honorary  Professor  of 
Ancient  History  rendered  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  Right 
Honourable  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  and  was  unani- 
mously approved. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Fred.  A.  Eaton, 

Secretary." 

There  are  only  four  honorary  members  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  namely,  a  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Correspondence,  an  Antiquary,  a  Professor  of  Ancient 
Literature,  and  a  Professor  of  Ancient  History. 
The  first  Professor  of  Ancient  History  was  Oliver 
Goldsmith,  who  said,  on  being  appointed,  that  it 
was  like  giving  a  man  lace  ruffles  when  he  had  no 
shirt.     The  second  was  Gibbon. 


344  '^'/r  Richard  J  ebb  [1899 

Early  in  1899  London  University  received  its 
new  charter,  and  in  February  *' Victoria,  by  the  Grace 
of  God  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  Queen,  etc.,"   appointed  "her  Trusty  and 

Well-beloved  Richard  Claverhouse  Jebb to  be 

a  Fellow"  in  it. 

Two  important  Conferences  were  held  in  Cam- 
bridge in  April.  He  took  the  Chair  and  spoke  at 
the  first — on  the  Church's  Mission — in  response  to 
a  request  from  his  friend  Canon  Armitage  Robinson 
(now  Dean  of  Westminster). 

"Christ's  College, 

February  i^jth^  1899. 
My  Dear  Dr  Jebb, 

May  I  ask  you  kindly  to  consider  whether  we 
might  hope  that  you  would  speak  at  the  opening  of  the 
Conference  referred  to  in  the  enclosed  paper  ? 

I  have  been  largely  responsible  for  the  selection  of  the 
subject,  and  I  am  very  desirous  that  the  imperial  side  of 
the  Church's  Mission  work  should  obtain  adequate  recogni- 
tion. 

I  know  that  every  one  looks  to  you  to  help  them,  and 
I  am  most  unwilling  to  add  to  your  burdens.  But  we  do 
want  to  have  your  voice  to  give  a  breadth  to  the  treatment 
of  this  subject  at  the  outset." 

He  felt  himself  in  duty  bound  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  second  Conference,  that  of  the  National 
Union  of  Teachers.  A  member  thus  described  the 
impression  he  made  while  speaking : 

"  Professor  Jebb  is  a  man  of  unruffled  calm ;  dignified 
without  hauteur  or  pose  ;  refined,  without  the  least  trace  of 


1899]  Deputation  to  the  Archbishops  345 

the  'superior-person'  element;  he  wins  respect  immediately, 
and  one  feels  that  there  stands  before  the  Conference 
a  scholarly  man,  a  man  of  distinction,  a  University  man  of 
the  very  best  type.  His  enunciation  is  clear  and  leisurely  ; 
one  hears  nothing  but  the  purest  English,  no  rhetoric, 
nothing  but  what  is  in  the  very  best  taste,  and  the  whole  is 
illumined  by  a  delicate  humour.... He  concluded  his  speech 
by  a  plea  for  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  of  his 
patriotic  function." 

We  had  found  some  difficulty  in  making  comfort- 
able arrangements  for  our  stay  in  town,  now  that  our 
week-ends  were  spent  in  Cambridge  and  our  servants 
remained  there.  This  year  we  leased  and  furnished 
a  flat  in  Whitehall  Court. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

'■^  May  ist^   1899. 

I  was  so  glad  to  get  your  letter  this  morning. 
When  you  come  back  on  Wednesday,  we  will  dine 
together  either  at  Whitehall  Court  or  at  your  club — 
for  I  have  written  and  excused  myself  from  the 
Clothworkers'  dinner.  Then  I  can  go  quietly  on  to 
the  Royal  Society  about  9.15. 

I  went  with  the  small  deputation  to  the  Arch- 
bishops this  morning.  It  was  really  very  pleasant 
and  interesting.  There  were  only  about  twelve  of 
us.  We  stood  or  sat  before  their  two  Graces,  each 
of  whom  spoke — characteristically  and  well.  York 
was  better  than  Canterbury,  /  thought.  Lord 
Ashcombe  drove  me  back  to  Westminster,  and  then 
I  went  home  to  the  flat,  and  stayed  there  till  I  came 
to  the  House  at  3.15 1  shall  dine  at  the  Literary 


34^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1899 

Society,  having  got  a  pair,  and  return  to  the  House 
afterwards. 

To-morrow  I  have  to  go  to  a  Church  meeting 
(E.  Lyttelton  asked  me)  at  2,  and  then  to  the 
London  University  Commission.  In  the  evening 
there  is  the  Club  (Lord  Wolseley),  but  I  am  not 
sure  yet  whether  I  shall  go. 

Do  you  know,  I  go  on  liking  the  flat  very  much. 
I  don't  think  we  have  ever  been  more  comfortable." 

On  the  7th  of  June  we  went  to  Oxford  for  the 
Romanes  Lecture.  His  subject  was  Humanism  in 
Education.  The  theme  began  with  an  account  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
address  he  told  the  following  very  beautiful  story  in 
illustration  of  the  value  of  Humanism  in  training 
statesmen.  ''In  1762,  at  the  end  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  Robert  Wood — he  himself  tells  the 
story  in  his  '  Essay  on  the  Original  Genius  of 
Homer' — being  then  an  Under-Secretary  of  State 
took  the  preliminary  articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
to  the  President  of  the  Council,  Lord  Granville ;  who 
was  ill,  and  had  indeed  but  a  few  days  to  live.  See- 
ing what  his  condition  was.  Wood  proposed  to 
withdraw  ;  but  the  Statesman  replied  that  it  could 
not  prolong  his  life  to  neglect  his  duty,  and  then 
quoted  in  Greek  from  the  Iliad  the  words  of  Sarpe- 
don  to  Glaucus :  '  Ah,  friend,  if  once  escaped  from 
this  battle,  we  were  ever  to  be  ageless  and  immortal, 
I  would  not  myself  fight  in  the  foremost  ranks,  nor 
would  I  send  thee  into  the  war  that  giveth  men 
renown  ;  but  now — since  ten  thousand  fates  of  death 


1899]  Prizegiving  at  St  Olaves  347 

beset  us  every  way,  and  these  no  mortal  may  escape 
nor  avoid — now  let  us  go  forward'  *  He  repeated 
the  last  word  to/xei',  several  times,'  says  Wood,  '  with 
calm  and  determined  resignation,  and  then,  after 
a  pause,  asked  to  hear  the  treaty  read.'  " 

This  same  month  Jebb  was  appointed  a  Member 
of  the  Standing  Committee  on  Law  in  respect  of  the 
Board  of  Education  Bill,  which  had  come  down  from 
the  Lords.  He  was  active  both  in  proposing  amend- 
ments in  committee  and  in  speaking  in  favour  of  the 
Bill  in  the  House.  He  spoke  at  length  on  the  26th 
at  the  second  reading  and,  more  briefly,  several 
times  as  different  points  arose  in  debate.  The  pro- 
gress of  the  Bill  was  so  slow  that  he  began  to  despair 
of  its  ever  getting  to  the  Report  stage. 

On  July  27th  he  gave  the  prizes  at  St  Olave's 
School,  Southwark.  Anything  historical  appealed 
to  him,  and  he  watched  with  interest  the  presenta- 
tion to  the  Warden  of  a  bunch  of  red  roses ; 
St  Olave's  had  been  endowed  in  1656  with  sixteen 
acres  of  land  in  Horsleydown  to  be  held  for 
500  years,  for  a  yearly  rent  of  a  red  rose — this 
bunch  of  roses  was  the  rent. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

''House  of  Commons, 
July  2'jth. 

My  function  went  off  very  well,  and  I  really  found 
it  interesting. 

First,  I  went  to  the  old  Church  of  St  Olave's  in 
Southwark,  and  heard  the   Master  of  the   Temple 


348  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1899 

(AInger)  preach.  Then  we  all  walked  to  the  School : 
I  gave  the  prizes  ;  then  made  a  speech  (successful) ; 
then  the  boys  did  some  acting  and  reciting ;  and  the 
affair  ended  at  5.30  p.m. 

On  returning  to  the  House,  I  found  Anson  very 
anxious  about  the  Education  Bill.  They  do  not 
know  when  it  will  be  taken  ;  perhaps  Monday  next 
— perhaps  Tuesday  (the  day  when  I  have  to  go  to 
Chigwell  School  in  Essex).  There  is  a  dire  rumour 
that  the  Government  may  drop  it  altogether.  If 
they  do,  it  will  be  a  great  mistake.  Gorst  talked  to 
me  about  the  Duke's  answer  to  Lord  Morley.  The 
Duke  said  there  were  to  be  three  Assistant  Secre- 
taries ;    Gorst  wants  only  two 

I  think  I  shall  have  to  stay  here  to-morrow  for 
the  Transvaal  debate.  In  any  case  I  shall  of  course 
come  home  on  Saturday  morning. 

I  am  disheartened  about  the  Education  Bill,  and 
do  not  know  when  I  shall  be  released  from  attend- 
ance at  the  House.  I  may  have  to  stay  till  Thursday 
next,  or  even  to  go  up  on  Monday,  August  7th." 

His  forecast  was  too  pessimistic.  The  Bill  was 
read  a  third  time  on  August  ist. 

In  September  we  spent  a  most  interesting  week 
at  Skibo  Castle  as  the  guests  of  that  remarkable  man, 
Mr  Andrew  Carnegie.  The  part  of  his  new  property 
that  appealed  to  him  most  at  that  time  was  his 
salmon  river.  *'  Talk  about  owning  twenty  thousand 
acres,"  he  said  in  effect.  "  You  can't  see  them, 
you   can't  walk  over  them,  you  can't  realise  your 


1899]  Visits  in  Scotland  349 

ownership.  The  imagination  can  hardly  grasp  the 
difference  between  twenty  thousand  and  one  thou- 
sand— except  as  mere  figures.  But  it  can  take  in, 
and  please  itself  with,  the  possession  of  this  leaping, 
rushing  stream."  From  Skibo  we  went  to  Sir 
Robert  and  Lady  Finlay  at  Nairn  for  a  fortnight, 
where  one  of  us  tried  most  perseveringly  but  in 
vain  to  learn  golf.  He  came  back  from  Scotland 
refreshed  for  the  work  and  engagements  of  the 
October  Term. 

War  with  the  Transvaal  broke  out  in  October 
1899,  3-^<^  ^11  other  interests  paled  before  the  one 
great  interest — success  for  our  arms.  But  home 
affairs  must  still  go  on,  and  Parliament  must  give 
time  to  the  usual  business  of  the  country,  though 
the  thoughts  of  all  Englishmen  were  across  the 
Equator.  The  London  University  Commission  re- 
commenced its  regular  meetings  after  the  Long 
Vacation,  and  so  did  the  many  other  Committees  of 
which  J  ebb  was  a  member.  Parliament  assembled 
on  the  19th  of  October,  and  Mr  Chamberlain  made 
his  famous  speech,  which  lasted  two  hours  and  forty 
minutes,  in  defence  of  the  Government's  policy  in 
the  Transvaal. 

In  the  autumn  a  meeting  of  the  whole  University 
was  held  in  the  rooms  of  the  Union  Society  at 
Cambridge.  J  ebb  spoke,  among  others,  in  favour 
of  a  War  Fund  to  be  raised  in  aid  of  the  soldiers' 
and  sailors'  families  ;  the  resolution  was  carried  with 
acclamation. 


350  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1899 

A  deputation,  of  which  Professor  J  ebb  was 
spokesman,  waited  upon  the  Home  Secretary  on 
October  23rd,  to  urge  the  introduction  during  the 
next  session  of  a  Government  Bill  to  settle  the 
questions  dealt  with  by  the  Select  Committee  on 
Burial  Grounds.  It  was  in  one  respect  unique  in 
character,  for  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists,  Con- 
servatives and  Liberals,  were  represented  upon  it. 
The  unexpected  harmony  that  had  prevailed  in 
J  ebb's  Committee  had  its  counterpart  at  the  inter- 
view. Sir  M.  White  Ridley  responded  that  he  had 
already  had  a  Bill  prepared  on  the  lines  of  the 
Committee's  Report,  and  that  he  would  do  his  best 
to  have  it  included  in  the  programme  of  the  coming 
session.  He  said  that,  upon  a  difficult  subject  which 
naturally  carried  strong  feelings  on  both  sides  of  it, 
there  had  seldom  been  a  Committee  which  did  more 
honest  work,  and,  on  the  whole,  came  to  a  compro- 
mise which  was  so  likely  to  last. 

At  the  end  of  the  year,  in  answer  to  a  com- 
munication from  Sir  Michael  Foster,  Secretary  of 
the  Royal  Society,  an  informal  meeting  was  held  in 
J  ebb's  study  at  Springfield  to  discuss  the  formation 
of  a  British  Academy.  At  this  first  meeting  there 
were  present  only  the  late  Lord  Acton,  the  late 
Dr  Sidgwick,  and  himself.  The  communication 
from  the  Royal  Society  was  to  the  effect,  that  if,  as 
was  contemplated,  an  International  Association  of 
Academies  was  formed,  there  was  no  Society  in 
England  that  could  claim  admission  as  representing 


I  poo]  British  Academy  projected  351 

the  subjects  embraced  in  the  Literary  Section.  (The 
International  Association  was  to  consist  of  two 
sections,  one  devoted  to  Natural  Science,  and  the 
other  to  Literature,  Antiquities,  and  Philosophy.) 
As  matters  stood,  while  all  other  countries  would  be 
represented  on  the  two  sections,  the  United  Kingdom 
would  only  be  represented  on  the  Scientific  Section. 
It  was  not  for  the  Royal  Society  to  suggest  a  remedy, 
but  they  wished  to  make  the  facts  known  to  eminent 
representatives  of  the  branches  of  knowledge  in- 
cluded in  the  Literary  Section. 

The  small  meeting  decided  to  call  a  larger  meet- 
ing in  London  for  further  discussion  of  the  matter. 
Such  a  meeting  was  held  on  the  14th  of  December 
in  the  Society  of  Antiquaries'  rooms,  and  many  dis- 
tinguished men  were  present.  A  vote  was  carried 
in  favour  of  making  an  attempt  to  form  an  Academy 
which  should  represent  History,  Philology,  and 
Moral  and  Political  Science.  There  for  the  present 
the  matter  rested. 

The  London  University  Commissioners,  after 
many  sittings,  laid  the  statutes  they  had  framed  for 
that  University  before  the  Houses  of  Parliament 
in  February  1900.  J  ebb  had  taken  an  active  part 
in  framing  these,  both  as  Commissioner  and  as 
Fellow  of  the  University,  and  was  well  pleased 
when  the  last  stage  was  reached.  Another  Bill 
in  which  he  was  concerned  came  up  before  the 
House  for  second  reading  on  April  30th,  and  was 
read  without  a  division — the  belated  Burials  Bill. 
J  ebb  said  a  few  words  in  recommending  the  Bill  to 


352  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1900 

the  House.  He  spoke  at  much  greater  length  on 
the  3rd  of  May,  when  he  opened  the  debate  on 
the  new  Education  Code  by  moving  a  resolution 
in  which  approval  was  expressed  of  the  proposals 
contained  in  the  Code  for  day-schools,  and  in  the 
Minute  of  the  Board  of  Education.  He  vindicated 
the  principle  of  the  *' block  grant"  as  against  the 
other  principle  of  special  grants  for  special  subjects. 
"  To  pack  together  snippets  of  knowledge,"  he  said, 
**on  the  most  lucrative  plan  is  not  to  give  the  people 

education  in  any  real  sense Henceforth  the  grant 

will  be  determined  by  the  educational  work  of  the 
school  and  the  intelligence  of  the  teaching."  There 
was  no  real  opposition  to  the  motion,  and  it  was 
carried  nem.  con.  at  midnight. 

Professor  J  ebb's  name  was  included  in  the  list  of 
Honours  which  appeared  on  the  Queen  s  birthday. 
A  little  history  is  attached  to  his  acceptance  of 
knighthood  in  1900.  Three  years  earlier  he  had 
received  this  letter. 

From  Professor  (now  Sir  George)  Darwin. 

''May  24,   1897. 
My  Dear  Jebb, 

Liveing  has  been  here  just  now  with  the 
inquiry  as  to  whether  you  would  accept  a  knighthood,  and 
I  undertook  to  write  to  you  on  the  subject.  The  Duke  of 
Devonshire  is  bringing  your  name  forward  for  that  or  some 
other  honour.  Liveing  gathers  that  a  baronetcy  has  been 
suggested  to  Lord  Salisbury  but  has  no  information  as  to 
whether  it  will  be  offered.  The  Master  of  Magdalene  has 
written  personally  to  the  Duke  on  the  matter." 


I  poo]  Knighthood  353 

Knighthood  was  respectfully  declined.  Jebb 
would  have  accepted  a  baronetcy  for  a  reason 
peculiar  to  himself.  When  Dr  Jebb,  the  famous 
physician,  was  made  a  baronet,  George  the  Third 
offered  to  include  the  name  of  his  heir  in  the  patent. 
Judge  Jebb — then  a  mere  lad — when  consulted, 
demurred.  He  had  his  own  way  to  make  and  to 
be  heir  to  a  baronetcy  with  only  a  small  fortune 
attached  would  hamper  him.  "  But  for  this  de- 
cision," said  his  grandson  in  discussing  the  question 
with  me,  ''  I  should  now  be  the  fourth  baronet. 
No,   I  won't  be  a  knight." 

But  three  years  later  the  Master  of  Corpus, 
Dr  Perowne,  who  had  originally  asked  him  to  be- 
come a  candidate  for  the  University  representation 
in  Parliament,  and  had  always  been  one  of  his 
staunchest  friends  and  supporters,  sought  an  inter- 
view with  him.  To  his  great  surprise  he  found 
that  the  Master  had  been  much  disappointed  at  his 
declining  knighthood  in  1897.  Dr  Perowne  thought 
it  becoming  that  the  Member  for  Cambridge  should 
be  distinguished  by  some  honour ;  and  he  intimated 
that  other  influential  constituents  shared  this  view. 
Jebb  answered  that  if  he  had  known  at  the  time 
that  such  feeling  existed,  he  would  have  acted 
differently.  When  the  honour  was  offered  again  in 
1900,  it  was  at  once  accepted. 

The  first  letter  of  congratulation  received  was 
from  the  Vice-Chancellor.  The  paragraph  with 
which  it  ended  bore  out  Dr  Perowne's  assertion  on 
which  Jebb  had  acted,  that  his  acceptance  of  knight- 

J.   M.  23 


354  ^^'^  Richard  J  ebb  [1900 

hood  would  please  his  constituents.  *'  We  rejoice," 
said  the  Vice-Chancellor,  ''  not  only  for  your  sake  but 
also  because  the  University  may  be  allowed  to  claim 
some  share  in  a  compliment  paid  to  one  of  its  most 
distinguished  members  and  its  Representative  in 
Parliament."  He  was  dubbed  by  the  Queen  at 
Windsor  on  June  30.  He  conceived  a  very  tender 
and  reverent  feeling  for  the  gracious  Lady  who  had 
been  on  the  throne  through  the  whole  of  his  life ; 
the  honour  gained  a  value  in  his  eyes  when  received 
from  her  hands.  From  Windsor  he  came  on  to 
Fulham  Palace  for  what  proved  to  be  our  last  visit 
to  the  Bishop  of  London  and  Mrs  Creighton. 
Before  the  spring  came  again  that  eminent  man 
had  passed  ''from  the  ranks  of  the  combatants  to 
those  of  the  spectators." 

An  Order  in  Council,  constituting  a  permanent 
Consultative  Committee  to  the  Board  of  Education, 
was  laid  before  both  Houses  in  June.  Early  in  July 
the  Members  of  this  Committee  to  the  number  of 
eighteen  were  appointed.  The  country  received 
some  of  the  nominations  with  scant  approval.  Sir 
R.  C.  J  ebb  and  Dr  Gow  of  Westminster  were  among 
the  few  names  supposed  to  possess  the  confidence  of 
the  schoolmasters — at  least  so  said  one  of  their  cir- 
culars. A  meeting  was  held  at  the  College  of 
Preceptors  to  consider  the  possibility  of  establishing 
a  Federal  Educational  Council,  and  many  hard 
things  were  said  of  the  lack  of  enthusiasm  in  matters 
educational  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  "As  to 
the  promised  Consultative  Committee,"  Mr  Yoxali 


ipoo]  Parliamentary  Business  355 

said,  "teachers  would  renounce  it  altogether — the 
members  would  not  be  representative." 

By  request — it  was  rather  out  of  his  own  line — 
Jebb  introduced  a  Bill  to  amend  the  Medical  Acts. 
Hitherto  there  had  been  only  one  measure  of  punish- 
ment for  delinquents — erasure  from  the  medical 
register.  The  Council  desired  power  to  vary  the 
punishment  according  to  the  misconduct.  He  also 
introduced  Lord  Monks  well's  Copyright  Bill  which 
had  come  down  from  the  Lords,  though  with  small 
hope  that  the  Bill  could  be  dealt  with  so  late  in  the 
session.  Convocation  also  wished  for  power  to 
reform  their  constitution,  and  before  he  left  town  he 
introduced  their  Bill.  Then,  having  finished  his 
business  in  the  House,  he  paired  for  the  remainder 
of  the  session. 

To  such  base  uses  do  men  come  that  he  was 
asked  to  furnish  notes  for  an  election  poster — which 
he  did  quite  cheerfully.  After  reading  to  his  wife 
this  rousing  appeal  ''to  the  Electors,"  he  turned  the 
same  hour,  with  the  feeling  of  having  come  to  his 
own  again,  to  the  writing  of  a  lecture  on  Macaulay 
for  the  University  Extension  students,  whose 
annual  meeting  was  to  be  held  in  Cambridge  in 
August. 

In  July  he  went  to  Paris  to  attend  the  Congress 
of  Higher  Education  as  the  representative  of  the 
Cambridge  Syndicate.  He  began  the  chief  work  of 
the  first  day,  after  the  election  of  officers,  by  giving 
abrief  history  of  the  extension  movement  in  England. 
As  he  stood  there  with  his  beautiful  face  and  singular 

23—2 


356  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1900 

refinement,  speaking  in  his  clear  melodious  voice, 
not  an  Englishman  was  present  who  did  not  feel 
proud  of  him — so  said  Mr  Hartog,  another  repre- 
sentative, in  describing  the  scene. 

The  Macaulay  lecture  was  successful.  Mr  R.  D. 
Roberts,  the  Secretary  for  the  Lectures,  wrote:  ''We 
are  immensely  indebted  to  you  for  what  I  have  heard 
described  as  the  'great  lecture  of  the  Meeting.' 
There  is  a  strong  desire  that  it  should  be  pub- 
lished "  : —  as  indeed  he  knew,  for  application  had 
come  to  him  from  three  publishers.  It  was  brought 
out  in  book  form  by  the  Pitt  Press. 

On  August  28th  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick  died, 
and  thus  there  was  broken  for  J  ebb  an  almost  life- 
long friendship.  Cambridge  never  seemed  quite  the 
same  to  him  again,  when  it  was  no  longer  possible 
*'to  consult  Sidgwick,"  or  to  be  cheered  by  that 
delightful  mind. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

RE-ELECTION.  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN.  DEPUTA- 
TION TO  MR  BALFOUR.  IRISH  UNIVERSITY 
COMMISSION. 

1900 — 1901. 

The  dissolution  of  Parliament  came  on  Sep- 
tember 25th.  Sir  John  Gorst  and  Sir  Richard  Jebb 
were  re-elected  on  October  ist,  their  '*  Address  to 
their  Constituents  "  and  their  thanks  **  for  the  high 
honour  conferred  upon  them  "  appearing  in  the  same 
number  of  the  Cambridge  University  Reporter :  so 
quickly  was  everything  done.  In  November  Jebb 
was  also  re-elected  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Senate,  his  name  being  on  the  tickets  of  both 
academical  parties. 

The  new  year  began  with  another  loss  for  us, 
when  Dr  Sidgwick's  very  dear  friend,  Mr  F.  W.  H. 
Myers,  followed  him  to  the  shades.  He  died  at 
Rome  in  January  after  a  long  illness. 

The  Queen  died  on  January  22nd,  1901,  in  the 
82nd  year  of  her  age  and  the  64th  of  her  reign. 
The  Vice-Chancellor  wrote  to  Sir  Richard  on  the 
29th,  *'to  say  formally  that  I  am  trusting  to  you  to 
prepare  the  address  of  condolence  and  congratulation 


35^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1901 

which   the  Council  agreed  yesterday  to  propose 

You  may  be  glad  to  be  reminded  that  the  Addresses 
for   many   years    back    are    preserved    in    Cooper's 
Annals.     I  have  certified  this  as  far  as  George  I." 
The  address  ran  as  follows  : 

''TO   THE    KING'S    MOST   EXCELLENT 
MAJESTY. 

May  it  please  Your  Majesty, 

We,  Your  Majesty's  most  dutiful  sub- 
jects, the  Chancellor,  Masters,  and  Scholars  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  humbly  approach  Your 
Royal  Presence,  to  offer  the  expression  of  our  deep 
sympathy  with  the  great  sorrow  which  has  befallen 
Your  Majesty  and  the  British  Empire.  In  common 
with  all  our  fellow-subjects,  we  mourn  the  beloved 
Queen,  whose  lofty  example  of  devotion  to  duty,  and 
whose  great  qualities  of  character  and  heart,  had  won 
for  Her,  in  a  supreme  degree,  the  universal  rever- 
ence and  affection  of  Her  people.  To  the  personal 
influence  of  the  Sovereign  it  was  largely  due  that  the 
changes,  political  and  social,  which  occurred  under 
Her  reign  were  effected  in  tranquillity,  and  that  the 
progressive  expansion  of  Her  dominions  was  not 
accompanied  by  any  weakening  of  unity.  Her 
profound  knowledge  of  affairs,  Her  singular  sagacity 
in  difficult  questions  of  government  and  legislation, 
the  wonderful  sureness  and  delicacy  of  Her  judgment, 
have  constantly  been  attested  by  the  Statesmen  who 
were  called  to    Her  counsels.      They  alone   could 


ipoi]  Address  to  the  King  359 

measure  the  whole  extent  of  our  debt  to  Her  personal 
care  and  wisdom.  But  all  can  estimate  the  vast 
accession  of  strength  which  the  nation  derived  from 
the  devotion  which  She  inspired,  a  devotion  which 
was  the  fairest  pillar  of  our  State  and  the  dearest 
bond  of  a  world-wide  Empire.  By  the  virtues  and 
the  graces  of  Her  own  high  nature  the  Queen 
elevated  Her  people.  While  She  was  the  ideal  of 
a  constitutional  Ruler,  She  was  also  a  pattern  of  pure 
and  generous  womanhood,  one  whose  simple  charm 
came  home  to  the  humblest,  touching  them  with 
a  sense  of  human  kinship  in  the  deepest  needs  of 
human  life.  Her  reign  has  been  an  age  in  which 
every  kind  of  good  work  or  worthy  effort  has  been 
fostered  by  the  favour  of  the  Sovereign,  and  has 
been  lifted  to  a  higher  level  by  such  encouragement 
as  only  the  Sovereign  could  bestow.  With  deep 
thankfulness  we  recognise  that  this  great  reign, 
which  marks  an  era  for  our  country,  has  been  the 
most  beneficent  in  its  annals  ;  and,  in  the  hour  of 
bereavement,  we  reverently  acknowledge  those  in- 
calculable blessings  to  the  Empire  and  to  mankind 
which  will  be  associated  for  all  time  to  come  with 
the  name  and  the  memory  of  Queen  Victoria. 

In  offering  to  Your  Majesty  the  humble  expres- 
sion of  our  condolence  on  this  solemn  occasion,  we 
beg  leave  also  to  tender  our  respectful  congratula- 
tions on  Your  Majesty's  accession  to  the  Throne  of 
Your  Ancestors,  and  to  assure  You  of  our  loyal 
attachment  to  Your  Majesty's  Person.  The  heart- 
felt good  wishes  which  greet  the  commencement  of 


360  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1901 

Your  Majesty's  reign  are  nowhere  more  earnest 
than  in  the  ancient  University  of  which  Your 
Majesty  is  a  Member,  over  which  the  Illustrious 
Prince,  Your  Majesty's  Father,  once  presided,  and 
which  is  bound  by  so  many  ties  of  affection,  gratitude 
and  sympathy  to  Your  Majesty  and  Your  Royal 
House.  We  humbly  pray  that,  under  the  blessing 
of  Divine  Providence,  Your  Gracious  Majesty  may 
long  reign  in  the  hearts  of  a  free,  contented,  and 
united  people,  whose  love  is  the  heritage  of  Your 
Throne  ;  and  that,  amidst  the  duties  and  cares  of 
Your  exalted  station,  Your  Majesty  and  Your 
august  Consort  may  be  attended  by  every  happiness 
which  the  devotion  of  Your  subjects  could  desire." 

Sir  Richard  also  wrote  similar  addresses  for  the 
Hellenic  and  other  Societies. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Church  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee in  February,  1901,  he  was  elected  chairman 
in  succession  to  Lord  Cranborne,  who  announced 
his  resignation  on  taking  office  in  the  Government. 
He  was  also  appointed  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Irish  University  Education  recently 
authorised  by  Parliament.  He  accepted  with  reluctance 
and  only  after  much  pressure.  How  time  was  to  be 
found  to  attend  the  meetings,  he  could  not  divine. 

After  a  winter  of  hard  thinkinof  and  strenuous 
work  it  was  a  relief  to  put  everything  aside  and  go 
to  Glasgow  to  take  part  in  the  ninth  Jubilee  of 
Glasgow  University.  Of  course  during  the  week  of 
the  function  there  were  banquets  and  celebrations  at 


ipoi]  Glasgow   University  Jubilee  361 

which  he  had  to  speak,  but  all  was  delightfully  gay 
and  amusing.  Our  hosts,  Mr  and  Mrs  MacGeorge, 
were  old  friends  with  whom  it  was  a  pleasure  to  stay, 
and  our  fellow-guests,  the  late  Lord  Dufferin  and 
Lord  Glasgow,  made  a  perfect  house-party.  Sir 
Richard  wrote  some  Greek  elegiacs  in  honour  of  the 
occasion,  and  some  other  Greek  verses  for  the  "Muster 
Roll  of  Angus,'*  a  volume  meant  to  be  a  tribute  from 
the  County  to  the  University  and,  at  the  same  time, 
a  memorial  of  the  soldiers  who  went  from  Forfar- 
shire to  South  Africa. 

One  of  his  first  duties  after  returning  to  London 
was  to  preside  at  a  meeting  of  the  Modern  Languages 
Association  held  in  the  Queen's  Hall  to  urge  the 
necessity  of  giving  the  study  of  modern  languages  a 
more  prominent  position  at  the  seats  of  education. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

^^June  26th,  1 90 1. 

The  feeling  among  statesmen  is  that  they  wish 
to  goodness  it  was  Saturday.  Well,  the  Modern 
Languages  business  is  over — a  long,  but  rather  in- 
teresting affair  it  was,  from  3  to  5.15.  My  address 
was,  I  think,  successful  in  its  own  way.  Then  there 
was  Sir  Hubert  Jerningham,  a  diplomat  and  Colonial 
Governor,  who  spoke  English,  but  told  us  stories 
in  the  most  perfect  French,  with  mimicry :  he  was 
educated  in  Paris  and  speaks  the  language  even 
better  than  others.  And  there  were  other  more  or 
less  interesting  speakers.  To-morrow  is  the  Hellenic 
Society's  meeting  and  on  Friday  there  is  the  meeting 


362  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1901 

about  the  Academy — and  then — Saturday.  I  wish 
you  could  see  to-day's  Westminster  Gazette  :  a  picture 
of  the  Duke  (as  a  schoolboy)  followed  by  Gorst, 
saying  to  'Clara'  (Arthur  Balfour) — 'Stop!  that's  my 
kitten — if  you  drown  it,  there  will  be  an  awful  row.' 
But  the  kitten,  I  suspect,  is  doomed.  We  shall  hear 
on  Friday. 

What  am  I  to  do  to-night?  I  do  not  know. 
The  line  of  least  resistance  is  to  dine  here — or 
perhaps  at  the  Albemarle — and  go  to  bed  at  9.30  or 
10  p.m.  If  some  one  would  give  me  a  ^-(?^<^ place  at 
a  good  play,  I  should  not  object;  but  the  theatres  I 
most  affect  are  bound  to  be  full,  and  probably  hot." 


To  HIS  Wife. 

^'June  2']th,   1 90 1. 

I  have  had  an  interesting  day.  In  the  Times 
this  morning,  I  saw  an  announcement  that  Anson, 
Lockwood,  and  Whitmore  had  arranged  for  a  depu- 
tation to  Balfour,  about  the  Education  Bill,  at  5.30 
p.m.:  and  I  knew  that  I  must  go  to  it.  But  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Hellenic  Society,  at  which 
I  had  to  preside,  was  at  5  p.m.  So  I  arranged 
with  G.  Macmillan  that  I  should  speak  for  a  few 
minutes  at  the  beginning  of  that  meeting,  and  then 
get  away.  I  did  so,  and  all  went  off  well.  Then  I 
returned  to  the  House,  where  I  found  that  it  had 
been  arranged  that  I  was  to  be  the  spokesman  of  the 
deputation — a  very  large  one — to   Balfour.      Some 


ipoi]  Deputation  to  Mr  Balfour  363 

private  business  having  delayed  Questions, — of 
which  there  were  95 — it  was  not  5.30,  but  6.15, 
when  Balfour  received  us.  The  meeting  was  in 
the  Grand  Committee  Room.  About  50  or  60 
Unionist  Members  were  present.  Whitmore  rose 
first,  and  said  that  I  would  state  the  object  of  the 
Deputation.  Before  I  could  rise,  Sir  S.  Hoare  got 
up,  quickly  followed  by  Charles  Dalrymple,  to  object 
to  the  presence  of  the  Press.  But  the  meeting  was 
evidently  in  favour  of  the  reporters  being  there,  and 
they  stayed.  Then  I  spoke — very  briefly,  as  we  had 
come,  not  to  talk,  but  to  give  Balfour  an  opportunity 
of  making  an  announcement.  I  said,  in  effect,  that 
the  merits  of  the  Bill,  as  conducing  to  a  better  system 
of  secondary  education,  had  been  generally  recog- 
nised. We  should  be  glad  if  it  could  be  passed  this 
session.  But  we  saw  the  serious  difficulties  in  regard 
to  time.  If  the  Government  thought  these  insuper- 
able, then  we  submitted  two  points.  First,  that 
in  any  short  temporary  Bill  passed  to  meet  the 
Cockerton  difficulty,  the  School  Boards  must  not  be 
re-instated  in  the  position  which  they  occupied  before 
the  Cockerton  judgment.  We  did  not  desire  to  see 
them  made  the  permanent  Local  Authorities  for 
Secondary  Education.  Secondly,  we  hoped  that  the 
Government  could  see  their  way  to  promise,  at  least 
conditionally,  the  early  introduction  of  an  education 
bill  next  year. 

Balfour  then  made  the  speech  which  you  will 
doubtless  find  verbatim  in  the  Times,  Anson,  Talbot, 
and  some  others  afterwards  said  a  few  words. 


364  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1901 

Balfour  was  going  to  sit  down  without  saying  a 
syllable  on  my  second  point — legislation  next  year — 
remarking  that  he  thought  he  had  now  '  dealt  with 
all  the  points,' — when  Lord  Percy,  who  was  next  me, 
got  up  and  drew  his  attention  to  the  omission.  How 
curious  that  a  Minister,  on  the  edge  of  a  crisis,  should 
forget  such  a  vital  point,  which  had  been  urged  on 
him,  too,  five  minutes  before!" 

Education  Bill  No.  2  on  the  lines  suggested  at 
the  meeting  was  at  once  introduced  by  Sir  John 
Gorst  and  passed  the  first  reading  without  difificulty. 
At  the  second  reading  J  ebb  spoke  in  its  defence  at 
some  length.  He  said:  ''some  persons  who  pleaded 
for  the  education  ladder  urged  that  continuity  was 
desirable.  Yes,  but,  In  education,  continuity  meant 
progress,  and  the  continuity  which  these  persons 
approved  meant  marking  time.  Nothing  could  be 
educationally  worse  for  a  clever  pupil  than  to  stay 
on  at  a  school  of  which  he  had  nearly  reached  the 
top.  What  he  needed  was  to  go  to  a  school  in  which 
he  would  receive  a  fresh  stimulus,  where  he  would 
compete  with  pupils  who  knew  more  than  he  did." 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"House  of  Commons, 

July  2>th,  1 90 1. 

Speech  just  over.  Well  received.  Left  out  part 
(by  forgetfulness).  Was  It  not  just  my  luck  that 
Professor  Seymour  sent  In  his  card  to  me  at  the 
moment  when  I  was  waiting  for  the  man  before  me 


1 90 1  Obstruction  in  Parliament  365 

to  finish — when  I  was,  in  fact,  on  the  bound — and  so 
of  course  I  could  not  go  out.  And  now  he  is  gone, 
leaving  no  address! 

July  ^th. 
Report  of  speech  very  bad — greatly  abridged — 
language  changed — speech  spoilt.  But  a  hundred 
years  hence  what  will  it  signify?  We  shall  get  the 
second  reading  to-night.  The  third  reading  will  not 
be  till  the  week  after  next;  but  I  hope  to  get  paired 
not  later  than  July  25th." 

"  House  of  Commons, 

July  16th,  1 90 1. 

Yesterday  was  wholly  wasted  in  the  House, 
owing  to  the  absence  of  the  Chairman  of  Com- 
mittees (Mr  J.  W.  Lowther),  who  is  laid  up  with 
gout.  A  deputy  Chairman  cannot  put  a  motion  for 
closure,  and  so  the  Opposition,  under  Stuart  Wortley's 
presidency  as  deputy  Chairman,  simply  revelled  in 
obstruction  at  their  own  sweet  will.  We  had  a 
rdchauffd  of  the  second  reading  debate,  and  did  not 
get  a  division  on  the  first  amendment.  This  means 
that  everything  is  delayed  a  week.  Next  Monday 
and  Tuesday  will  be  devoted  to  the  Committee  on 
the  Bill — nothing  more  being  attempted  this  week. 
It  is  expected  that  Lowther  will  be  back  by  Monday: 
if  he  is  not,  then  there  will  be  further  delay.  The 
third  reading  will  not  be  taken  till  July  31st. 

I  am  sorely  tempted  to  come  down  to  Cambridge 
for  Thursday  and  Friday,  but  in  view  of  my  Friday 
engagements  I  hesitate. 


366  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1901 

I  trust  the  luncheon  went  off  successfully,  and 
that  the  garden  party  will  be  a  success. 

P.S.  Anson  took  me,  rather  against  my  inclina- 
tion, to  another  interview  with  Balfour  last  night. 
Of  this  I  will  tell  you  more  when  we  meet." 

The  Education  Bill  got  into  the  Committee  stage 
on  July  23rd.  Mr  Mather  proposed  an  amendment 
which  would  put  more  work  on  the  Education 
Board,  and  J  ebb  joined  in  the  debate  to  point  out 
that  the  Board  could  not  possibly  perform  the  work 
it  was  proposed  to  delegate  to  them.  At  the  end  of 
the  debate  the  Bill  was  reported  to  the  House  with- 
out amendments. 

From  THE  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

'■''August  16th,  1 90 1. 
Dear  Sir  Richard, 

It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  you  would  be 
kind  enough  to  help  me  with  a  Latin  translation  of  the 
King's  new  title  to  be  placed  in  abbreviated  form  on  the 
new  coinage.  The  full  title  is  'Edward  VII.  by  the  Grace 
of  God  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  (and  of  all  the  British  Dominions  beyond  the 
seas),  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  Emperor  of  India' :  the 
part  in  brackets  being  new.  The  old  part,  in  the  abbre- 
viated Latin  legend,  runs  '  Edvardus  VII.  D.  G.  Britt: 
Rex  F.  D.  Ind:  Imp:'  What  I  want  is  to  indicate  the 
new  title,  as  shortly  as  possible,  between  the  words  '  Britt' 
and  *  Rex.'     And  I  don't  like  repeating  the  *  Britt.' 

Yours  very  truly, 

M.  E.  Hicks  Beach." 


ipoi]  Inscription  for  the  Coinage  367 

*'  Springfield,  Cambridge, 

August  iph,  1 90 1. 
Dear  Sir  Michael, 

The  difficulty  of  representing  the  new 
addition  to  the  Royal  title  in  an  inscription  for  the 
new  coinage  arises  chiefly  from  the  great  brevity 
which  is  necessary. 

The  simplest  and  neatest  way  of  doing  it  would 
be  by  merely  inserting  the  word  omnium  after  Britt. 
We  do  not,  it  is  true,  speak  of  '  all  the  Britains,'  but 
it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  Britanniarum 
omnium  Rex  would  not  be  permissible  in  a  Latin 
inscription  on  a  coin. 

Another  way  of  expressing  the  idea  would  be  by 
adding  after  Britt.  et  coloniarum.  The  word  colo- 
niae  would  cover,  I  suppose,  all  '  British  dominions 
beyond  the  seas,'  since  in  all  of  them  settlements  of 
emigrants  from  Great  Britain  have  taken  place.  But 
exception  might  possibly  be  taken  to  the  use  of  the 
word,  on  the  ground  that  it  suggests  a  relation  of 
dependence  on  the  mother-country  in  a  way  which 
the  phrase  '  British  Dominions '  does  not  do.  It 
might  also,  perhaps,  be  objected  that  the  addition  of 
twelve  letters  (et  coloniarum)  is  larger  than  could 
easily  be  managed  on  the  coin.  An  abridgment,  et 
colon.,  would  be  possible,  but  perhaps  not  sufficiently 
clear. 

It  had  also  occurred  to  me  that,  omitting  Britt., 
one  might  insert  orbis  Britannici,  which  would 
include  both  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  dominions 
beyond  the  seas  :  but,  though  this  is  rather  attractive 


368  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [  1 9°  i 

from  a  literary  point  of  view,  it  is  liable  to  the  fatal 
objection  that  some  of  our  neighbours  might  per- 
versely translate  it,  '  the  world, — which  belongs  to 
the  British.' 

On  the  whole,  I   incline  to  my  first  suggestion 
{pmniwn).      If  I  can  think  of  anything  better,  I  will 
write  again.      It  is  really  a  very  difficult  point. 
Believe  me, 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.  C.  Jebb." 

The  first  suggestion  was  adopted. 

Sir  Richard  Jebb  completed  sixty  years  of  life  on 
August  27.  An  old  friend,  the  late  Dr  Robertson, 
wrote  congratulations  in  a  charming  letter. 

'*  Whittlesford  Vicarage, 
Cambridge, 

August  27^/z,   1 90 1. 
My  Dear  Jebb, 

It  was  with  regret  that  I  gathered  from  Arthur 
Sidgwick  in  a  flying  visit  to  us  on  Friday  that  your  last 
weeks  had  not  been  good  ones.  And  to-day  I  note  in  a 
paper  that  this  is  your  birthday.  I  am  glad  to  see  the  sun 
at  this  moment  struggling  back  again,  with  good  omen  I 
trust.  Anyhow  there  are  not  many  men  whose  sixty  years 
of  fine  gifts  so  nobly  and  strenuously  used  have  been  more 
enviable.  But  that  you  should  not  be  let  off  from  the 
pains  and  penalties  that  ought  to  be  visited  only  on  some 
of  us  wastrels,  is  one  of  the  big  mysteries  that  we  await. 
Meanwhile  Harre  getrost ! 

Yours  ever, 

James  Robertson." 


Tpoi]         Sittings  of  Commission  at  Dublin         369 

The  Irish  University  Commission  met  in  DubHn 
and  held  its  first  sitting  there  on  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember. 


To  HIS  Wife. 

"  Shelbourne  Hotel, 
September  i<)th,  1901. 

I  have  not  had  one  moment  all  day,  what  with 
people  taking  me  off  to  luncheon  and  tea,  and  then 
the  sittings  of  the  Commission.  We  sat  from  1 1  to  i 
and  from  2  to  about  5  to-day,  and  it  was  certainly 
extremely  interesting,  especially  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Limerick  gave 
evidence.  He  made  a  deep  impression  by  the 
remarkable  ability  of  his  statement.  He  is  a  man 
who  would  have  made  a  figure  in  public  life.  We 
all  felt  that  he  had  thrown  new  and  valuable  light 

on  the  question I  am  very  comfortable  at  the 

*  Shelbourne ' :  good  room  :  four  other  Commis- 
sioners staying  here  (Lord  Robertson,  Butcher, 
Ewing,  and  Lorraine  Smith).  We  have  a  sitting- 
room  together  where  we  can  talk  things  over.  It  is 
rather  too  bi*g  and  magnificent  for  homely  comfort, 
but  that  is  its  only  fault.  Observe  coronet  above  : 
(Lord  Shelbourne) :  truly  British.  I  point  this  out, 
for  fear  you  should  think  that  I  had  received  an 
Irish  peerage  on  landing  at  the  North  Wall 
yesterday,  and  had  hurried  up  the  stationers  to 
make  me  a  monogram." 

J.  M.  24 


3  7  o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  \}9^^ 

' '  September  27//^,   1 90 1 , 

We  have  made  great  progress  with  our  work 
and  have  gained  much  insight  into  the  main  condi- 
tions of  the  problem  ;  but  the  question  we  are  study- 
ing is  most  difficuh  and  I  scarcely  hope  for  an  early 
solution.  When  we  stop  taking  evidence  to-morrow, 
we  shall  have  examined  about  twenty  witnesses  of 

various  kinds,  some  of  them  very  thoroughly 

On  the  whole,  this  visit  has  been  much  what  I  ex- 
pected, except  that  the  work  has  been  rather  harder. 
There  is  a  feeling  of  melancholy  for  me  about  Dublin 
I  find  it  hard  to  shake  off.  It  was  the  place  I  lived 
in  in  early  childhood  ;  the  earliest  consecutive  memo- 
ries I  have  are  linked  with  certain  parts  of  Dublin 
and  the  neighbourhood.  And  now  all  my  people 
are  gone,  my  old  home  has  ceased  to  exist,  and  I 
myself  am  sixty  years  old.  I  shall  be  glad  to  get 
away.     I  am  happiest  at  home." 

Full  Term  began  on  October  nth.  On  the 
25th  the  British  School  at  Athens  held  its  yearly 
meeting  at  which  J  ebb  presided.  Early  in  Novem- 
ber he  opened  an  important  discussion  on  "The 
Educational  Policy  of  the  Unionist  Party"  at  a  dinner 
of  the  United  Club  in  London.  His  address  was 
afterwards  printed  by  request.  In  December  the 
Irish  University  Commission  absorbed  a  week  of 
our  Christmas  vacation  but,  as  if  in  compensation, 
the  weather  on  the  Riviera  had  never  been  more 
brilliant.      On  the  last  day  of  the  year  the   diary 


ipot]  On  the  Riviera  371 

records  :  '*  C.  and  I  went  by  train  to  Mentone  :  we 
walked  from  Mentone  along  Boulevard  du  Midi 
to  Cap  Martin  :  a  most  beautiful  walk  by  the  sea 
which  we  greatly  enjoyed.  Found  Sir  William 
Anson  at  Grand  Hotel.  Met  him  and  Miss  Anson 
again  at  Concert.     A  happy  day." 


24 — -2 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

BRITISH  ACADEMY.  EDUCATION  BILL.  TERCEN- 
TENARY OF  BODLEIAN  LIBRARY.  TRUSTEE  OF 
BRITISH  MUSEUM.  MEMORIAL  CLOISTER  AT 
CHARTERHOUSE. 

1902 — 1903. 

The  attempt  to  form  an  Academy  which  the 
meeting  of  1899  had  resolved  upon  was  quietly- 
pursued.  In  January,  1902,  a  petition  for  incor- 
poration was  presented  to  the  King  on  behalf  of  The 
British  Academy  for  the  Promotion  of  Historical^ 
Philosophical,  and  Philological  Studies.  The  list  of 
names  attached  to  the  petition  could  not  well  have 
been  more  remarkable,  and  the  Times  greeted  the 
proposal  as  a  ''great  advance  in  the  organization  of 
knowledge  in  Great  Britain."  A  charter  was  granted 
in  the  course  of  the  year,  Lord  Reay  accepted  the 
position  of  President,  a  council  of  fifteen  was  elected, 
of  whom  J  ebb  was  one,  and  the  Academy  was 
started.  In  a  beautiful  tribute  paid  to  the  memory 
of  Sir  Richard  Jebb  at  the  first  meeting  after  his 
death,  Lord  Reay  said  : 

"  Those  who  are  even  but  slightly  acquainted  with  the 
first  beginnings  of  the  movement  which  culminated  in  the 


1902]  British  Academy  '^^'j^^ 

foundation  of  the  Academy  must  know  how  great  a  part 
Sir  Richard  Jebb  took  in  the  work  at  that  critical  period. 
He  was  firmly  convinced  that  a  great  future  was  in  store 
for  the  Academy.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  overcoming 
the  difficulties  that  beset  an  institution  at  the  outset  of  its 
career.  He  was  never  discouraged,  and  was  always  ready 
to  grapple  with  the  problems  that  confronted  us.... His  spirit 
is  with  us  still." 

On  the  2 1  St,  Sir  Richard  received  the  following 
letter  from  Earl  Spencer  : 

"  I  may  have  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  at  the  Club 
to-night,  but  I  think  it  better  to  write  to  you  on  a  matter  of 
educational  importance.  You  probably  have  noticed  that 
on  the  invitation  of  University  College,  Liverpool,  one  of 
the  constituent  Colleges  of  Victoria  University,  there  is  a 
movement  in  each  of  the  three  constituent  Colleges,  at 
Manchester,  Liverpool,  and  Leeds,  for  dissolving  that  Uni- 
versity  As  Chancellor  of  the  Victoria  University  I  was 

asked  to  settle  the  constitution  of  a  Committee  to  be 
appointed  to  advise  the  Court  of  the  University  as  to  how 

the  change  is  best  to  be  carried  out I  propose  that 

each  College  should  appoint  three  members  to  this  Com- 
mittee, and  it  was  decided  that  I  as  Chancellor  should 
appoint  the  same  number.  I  therefore  have  to  select  three. 
I  notice  that  you  are  a  member  of  the  Court  of  the 
University  and  I  venture  to  approach  you  to  ask  you  to 
allow  me  to  name  you  as  one  of  my  three  nominees.  I 
attach  great  moment  to  your  being  one,  for,  besides  many 
high  qualifications,  you  are  independent  of  either  of  the 
three  Colleges,  and  having  unrivalled  experience  in  Uni- 
versity questions,  your  presence  on  the  Committee  would 
be  invaluable.  May  I  therefore  urge  you  to  agree  to  my 
proposal.  I  tried  to  see  you  in  the  House  yesterday  and 
may  again  seek  for  you  in  that  body " 


374  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

Sir  Richard  was  compelled  to  decline  the  ap- 
pointment, not  having  time  or  strength  for  fresh 
duties  ;  but  when  a  second  most  courteous  letter 
came  from  Lord  Spencer,  asking  still  to  be  allowed 
to  choose  him  as  one  of  his  nominees,  even  if  he  could 
rarely  be  present  at  the  meetings,  he  was  glad  to 
accede  to  the  request. 

Meanwhile,  his  thoughts  were  much  given  to 
the  forthcoming  Education  Bill.  At  a  large  meeting 
in  Cambridge  in  January  he  spoke  at  length  on 
national  education  as  he  saw  it,  his  words  being 
received  with  much  enthusiasm. 

On  March  24th  Mr  Balfour  brought  in  an  Edu- 
cation Bill,  **  dealing  not  merely  with  secondary 
education  or  with  primary  education  in  their  isolation, 
but  dealing  with  both  in  one  measure  and  with  the 
view  to  their  better  co-ordination."  The  new  Bill 
was  both  comprehensive  and  conciliatory,  the  scheme 
it  contained  was  excellent,  but  unfortunately  one 
clause  might  make  all  the  others  nugatory.  The 
new  local  authority  was  left  at  liberty  to  accept  or 
decline  the  charge  of  elementary  education,  in  which 
latter  case  control  would  remain  in  the  hands  of  the 
old  authority.  In  his  speech  on  the  first  reading  Sir 
Richard  Jebb  dwelt  very  strongly  on  this  permissive 
clause.  "  Let  me  touch  upon  the  state  of  things 
that  will  arise  when  the  new  local  authority  does  not 
accept  the  permissive  clause.  I  ask  the  House,  is  it 
easy  to  conceive  anything  more  invidious  or  more 
irritating  than  the  local  contrasts  which  will  then 
arise  perhaps  within  the  borders  of  a  single  county  } 


1902]  speeches  on  the  Education  Bill  375 

As  to  the  complexity  of  educational  rating  areas  in 

that  county,  it  will  be  bewildering I  will  end  by 

once  more  entreating  the  Government  to  reconsider 
their  permissive  clause,  and  to  make  it  not  optional 
but  obligatory  for  every  local  authority  to  take  over 
both  elementary  and  secondary  education.  Samuel 
Johnson  said  that  'when  a  man  is  all  wrong  it  is  from 
want  of  sense,  but  when  he  is  half  wrong  it  may  be 
from  want  of  spirit.'  I  do  not  presume  to  apply  the 
second  half  of  that  maxim  to  the  Government  Bill  ; 
but  I  do  venture  to  say  that  this  is  a  case  where  the 
bolder  and  simpler  course  would  also  be  the  wiser." 
There  was  a  general  consensus  of  opinion  on  this 
one  point  in  a  Bill  otherwise  so  satisfactory  to  the 
party.  At  a  meeting  of  Unionist  members  in  April 
at  which  Jebb  presided,  it  was  decided  to  present  to 
the  Government  a  memorial  expressing  warm  ap- 
proval of  the  Bill  in  its  general  scope  and  urging 
them  to  take  the  second  reading  at  an  early  date. 
The  second  reading  was  taken  on  the  3rd  of 
May.  Jebb  spoke  again,  beginning  his  speech  by 
adroitly  turning  a  simile  Mr  Bryce  had  used  into  a 
compliment.  '*  The  right  honourable  member  com- 
pared the  Government  to  a  Cyclops,  meaning  no 
doubt  that  whatever  might  be  the  condition  of  the 
Opposition,  his  Majesty's  Government  saw  with  a 
single  eye."  He  then  proceeded  to  deal  gravely 
with  the  subject.  In  thanking  him  for  his  speech  a 
member  of  the  Government  wrote  : — ''  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  start  well,  and  your  speech  took  the  talk 
into  a  high  realm,  and  others  stayed  where  you  had 


376  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

led  them."  The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a 
large  majority  on  May  8th.  J  ebb  could  not  wait  to 
vote  and  was  compelled  to  pair,  having  to  journey  to 
Wales  on  that  day.  He  had  been  appointed  a 
delegate  from  Cambridge  University  to  be  present 
at  the  installation  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  as  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Welsh  University  at  Carnarvon.  The 
ceremony  was  interesting.  The  Constable  of  Car- 
narvon Castle  presented  the  keys  of  the  Castle  to  his 
Royal  Highness  who  in  accepting  them  made  an 
allusion  to  **my  first  visit  to  Wales  as  its  Prince." 
When  the  keys  had  been  formally  accepted  and 
returned,  the  new  Chancellor  proceeded  to  confer 
the  honorary  degrees,  the  delegate  from  Cambridge 
University  being  among  the  number  honoured.  Sir 
Richard  brought  away  a  sincere  admiration  for  the 
grace  and  charm  of  the  Princess  of  Wales. 

At  the  end  of  May  he  went  to  Manchester  to 
attend  an  important  meeting  of  the  Court  of  Victoria 
University,  then  occupied  in  dividing  itself  into  its 
constituent  parts,  and  to  present  the  report  of  the 
special  committee  of  which  he  was  chairman.  His 
explanation  of  the  recommendations  in  the  repc^rt  did 
much  to  make  them  acceptable  to  the  larger  body. 
A  small  difficulty  was  raised  about  the  name  Victoria 
which  each  University  wished  to  keep.  Sir  Richard 
thought  this  would  not  occasion  any  confusion.  ''If 
the  title  of  Victoria  was  common  to  all  three  Univer- 
sities, it  was  probable  that  in  practice  it  would  not  be 
used  by  any  of  them."  It  seems  that  this  prognostic 
is  likely  to  be  realised. 


1902]  Bodleian   Tercentenary  377 

In  June  came  the  illness  of  the  King,  almost  on 
the  eve  of  the  day  appointed  for  the  Coronation. 
Until  his  Majesty  was  out  of  danger,  nothing  was 
talked  of,  hardly  thought  of,  except  the  grave  peril 
that  hung  over  the  nation — which  mercifully  did  not 
fall.  The  King  made  a  steady  and  wonderfully  rapid 
recovery,  and  perhaps  had  never  looked  better  than 
on  the  day  he  was  crowned — August  9th,  1902. 

An  event  of  great  interest  to  scholars  took  place 
in  October  when  the  Bodleian  tercentenary  was 
celebrated  in  Oxford.  The  toast  assigned  to  Sir 
Richard  was  ''  The  Pious  Memory  of  Sir  Thomas 
Bodley  "  ;  and  here  is  the  speech  he  made. 

"  In  this  festival  the  memory  of  Thomas  Bodley  receives 
a  tribute  such  as  he  himself,  it  may  well  be  believed,  would 
have  most  prized.  For  it  is  a  proof  that  the  great  purpose 
to  which  he  devoted  the  last  part  of  his  life  has  been 
fulfilled  with  a  completeness  which  not  even  he  himself 
could  have  foreseen.  Three  hundred  years  have  passed, 
and  the  Library  which  he  restored  enjoys  a  unique  fame. 

It  is  not  only  that  its  treasures  of  every  kind  have 
grown  in  a  manner  which  the  Founder's  most  sanguine 
hopes  could  scarcely  have  forecast.  It  is  not  only  that 
wherever  in  the  world  learning  and  letters  are  honoured 
that  great  institution  is  renowned,  and  that  it  is  frequented 
by  the  scholars  of  every  land.  Besides  all  this,  the  place 
has  an  atmosphere,  a  charm,  an  indwelling  genius  of  its 
own.  To  us,  visitors  and  guests,  who  have  so  lately  been 
received  within  its  precincts,  has  it  not  been  given  to  feel 
some  part  at  least  of  that  which  is  so  deeply  felt  by  all 
sons  of  Oxford, — that  the  great  Library  embodies,  in  one 
aspect,  the  inmost  spirit  of  the  University  itself; — that 
there,  if  anywhere  in  the  world,  a  halo  of  poetry  and  of 


378  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

romance  is  thrown  about  the  labours  of  the  student ;  and 
that  there,  'secluded  from  all  worldly  noise/  the  sur- 
roundings themselves  add  something  indefinable,  and  at 
the  same  time  inestimable,  to  a  scholar's  converse  with 
the  thought  and  imagination  of  the  past  ? 

Nor  is  the  Founder's  connection  with  that  wonderful 
place  only  such  as  is  expressed  by  the  name  of  Founder. 
His  presence  dwells  in  it ;  his  purposes  still  govern  it;  the 
rules  which  he  made  for  it  are  still  loyally  observed ;  the 
very  adjective  Bodleian  is,  I  believe,  not  more  than  a 
hundred  years  old  in  general  currency  ;  for  two  centuries, 
the  regular  designation  was  'Bodley's'  Library;  it  is  in 
the  keeping  of  Bodley's  Librarian ;  nay,  Oxford  men,  I 
think,  are  wont  to  speak  of  the  Library  itself  as  '  Bodley.' 

No  other  Library  of  comparable  rank  has  ever  been,  in 
the  same  sense,  the  creation  of  one  man. 

To-day,  when,  with  pious  gratitude,  the  sons  of  Oxford 
and  her  guests  unite  in  turning  their  thoughts  back  to  the 
days  when  this  immeasurable  benefit  was  conferred  upon 
learning,  there  are  perhaps  two  moments  above  all  others 
on  which  our  recollection  dwells. 

We  think,  first,  of  the  time  when  Bodley,  a  youth  of 
sixteen,  came  from  Geneva  to  Oxford.  At  Geneva,  this 
Devonshire  lad,  whose  father  had  sought  refuge  there  from 
the  troublous  days  in  England,  had  seen  and  heard  men 
whose  names  stood  high  in  various  kinds  of  learning.  He 
had  heard  Beroaldus  lecture  on  Greek,  and  had  read 
Homer  with  Robert  Constantine ;  he  had  heard  Beza  and 
Calvin  teach  Theology.  In  1560  he  came  to  Oxford,  and 
entered  at  Magdalen.  Ten  years  had  then  passed  since  the 
Commissioners  had  effected  the  ruin  of  Duke  Humphrey's 
Library.  Signs  of  that  ruin  were  around  him.  As  the 
historian  of  the  Bodleian  has  said,  his  stationer  may  have 
sold  him  books  bound  in  fragments  of  manuscripts ;  the 
tailor  who  measured  him  for  his  sad-coloured  doublet  may 


1902]      speech  at  the  Bodleian   Tercentenary       379 

have  used  in  doing  so  a  strip  of  parchment  brilliant  with 
gold,  that  had  been  condemned  as  Popish,  or  covered  with 
strange  Greek  symbols  that  passed  for  unlawful  incan- 
tations. Is  it  not  easy  to  conceive  the  lasting  impression 
which  would  be  left  on  the  mind  of  a  studious  and  eager 
youth,  when  he  found  that  the  books,  and  the  very  book- 
shelves, had  disappeared  from  their  ancient  Oxford  home  ? 
The  sense  of  all  this  must  have  been  one  of  his  motives 
when,  as  a  Fellow  of  Merton,  he  undertook  to  lecture  on 
Greek — at  first  without  official  recognition — in  the  hall  of 
his  College — the  College  in  whose  Chapel  his  remains  rest. 

Then,  after  sixteen  years  at  Oxford,  came  that  middle 
period  of  his  life  which  saw  him  at  the  Court  of  Elizabeth, 
— presently  engaged  in  diplomatic  missions  abroad — and 
finally,  for  some  nine  years,  English  Resident  in  the  United 
Provinces.  He  was  recalled  by  his  own  wish  to  England 
in  1596,  and  resolved  to  retire  from  public  life. 

And  now  occurs  the  second  moment  which  must  be  in 
our  thoughts  to-day, — when,  in  his  own  famous  phrase, 
written  a  few  years  later,  he  concluded  '  to  set  up  his  staff 
at  the  Library  door  in  Oxon ' ;  convinced  that  he  could  not 
better  serve  his  country  than  by  restoring  that  place,  then 
desolate,  to  the  use  of  students. 

How  vivid  are  the  words  in  which  he  describes  the  zeal 
which  he  had  contrived  to  infuse  into  the  many  influential 
friends  from  whom  he  now  sought  gifts  of  books  for  his 
Library !  *  Every  man,'  he  says,  '  bethinks  him  how  by 
some  good  book  or  other  he  may  be  written  in  the  scroll  of 
benefactors.'  That  scroll,  which  has  been  receiving  in- 
cessant additions  during  three  centuries,  is  now  indeed  a 
long  and  varied  record.  And  every  gift  which  it  records 
has  reniained  under  the  inflexible  rule  laid  down  by  the 
Founder,  that  no  book  shall  ever  be  removed  from  the 
Library.  Well  did  Bodley  know  how  in  the  time  before 
his  own,  Duke  Humphrey's  library  had  suffered  from  the 


380  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

practice  of  lending  books.  The  rule  which  Bodley  laid 
down  brings  before  us  his  practical  sagacity,  and  his  strong 
will :  it  was  to  be  a  rule  without  exception.  We  have  all 
heard  of  the  severe  test  to  which,  in  two  celebrated  in- 
stances, that  rule  was  put  in  the  next  generation.  Charles  I, 
when  at  Oxford  in  1645,  wished  to  read  D'Aubigne's 
Universal  History,  and  sent  an  order  for  it  to  the  Library, 
signed  by  the  Vice-Chancellor :  the  Librarian,  John  Rous, 
went  to  the  King,  showed  him  the  Statutes  which  the 
Librarian  had  sworn  to  obey ;  and  the  King  withdrew  his 
request,  saying,  *  It  was  fit  that  the  will  and  statutes  of 
the  pious  Founder  should  be  religiously  observed,*  The 
next  Librarian,  Thomas  Barlow,  made  a  similar  reply  to 
the  Protector,  who  wished  to  take  out  a  manuscript  for 
the  use  of  an  ambassador ;  and  Cromwell  yielded  with  a 
like  propriety  of  feeling. 

Nor  can  we  forget,  in  rendering  our  tribute  to  Bodley's 
memory,  that  signal  proof  of  his  diplomatic  powers  which 
was  given  when  he  secured  for  his  Library  a  privilege  then 
without  parallel.  It  was  in  161 1  that  he  obtained  from  the 
Stationers'  Company  an  agreement  that  a  copy  of  every 
book  entered  at  their  Hall  should  be  sent  to  the  Library  at 
Oxford.  More  than  half  a  century  elapsed  before  any 
other  Library  in  the  kingdom  acquired  a  similar  right. 

It  is  a  strong  personality  that  comes  before  us,  when  we 
try  to  see  Thomas  Bodley  as  he  lived  ;  a  man  of  affairs, 
even  more  than  a  friend  of  study ;  a  patriotic  man,  ener- 
getic, farseeing  ;  ambitious,  in  worthy  w^ays  ;  not  indifferent 
to  applause,  but  resolved  that  it  should  be  honestly  earned  ; 
moved  by  a  deep  affection  for  learning  and  for  Oxford, 
which  had  their  roots  in  his  early  years  :  a  man  who,  having 
formed  a  noble  design,  knew  how  to  put  it  into  act,  and 
how  to  make  its  effects  enduring. 

He  wrought  for  Oxford  and  for  England  first,  but  also 
for  the  world-wide  republic  of  letters.     And  to-day,  in  his 


1902]  Education  Bill  381 

own  illustrious  University,  representatives  of  that  cosmo- 
politan brotherhood  salute  his  memory. 

The  beautiful  ceiling  of  the  Bodleian  exhibits  a  well- 
merited  honour  which  Oxford  granted  to  Bodley, — that  his 
coat  of  arms  should  be  augmented  by  the  three  ducal 
crowns  of  the  University  shield.  And  when  that  honour 
was  bestowed,  the  University  assigned  to  him  this  motto, 
Quarta  perennis  erit^  *  the  fourth  crown  shall  be  im- 
perishable.' It  may  be  that  they  who  gave  that  motto 
were  thinking  of  no  earthly  reward  ;  but  if  we  may  venture 
to  apply  it  to  the  place  which  Bodley's  memory  holds,  and 
must  ever  hold,  among  men,  may  we  not  say  that  the  omen 
of  the  legend  has  indeed  been  fulfilled  }  He  has  won  the 
unfading  crown  of  an  immense  gratitude,  which  knows  no 
limit  of  country  or  of  age.  We  are  here  to  attest  it.  And 
may  we  not  imagine,  as  present  with  us  in  spirit  to-night, 
those  who  in  past  generations,  amidst  the  influences  of 
Oxford,  have  known  what  the  poet  Daniel  called  that 
*  exquisite  and  most  rare  monument,'  her  great  Library ; 
have  loved  it,  have  worked  in  it  and  for  it,  and  have 
cherished  with  loyal  gratitude,  as  we  do  in  our  day,  the 
pious  memory  of  the  Founder  ? 

To  that  memory  I  now  ask  you  to  drink  in  silence." 

Parliament  assembled  on  October  i6th,  an  autumn 
session  having  become  necessary  to  pass  the  Educa- 
tion Bill  through  its  remaining  stages.  In  his  speech 
on  the  third  reading,  Sir  Richard  Jebb  again  began 
in  lighter  vein  with  a  quotation  from  the  leader  of 
the  Opposition,  before  proceeding  to  serious  argu- 
ment: ''Referring  to  the  Kenyon-Slaney  clause,  after 
enumerating  the  various  educational  agencies  under 
the  Bill,  the  right  hon.  gentleman  said — '  But  vi^e 
have  not  yet  exhausted  the  starry  firmament.     We 


382  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

discover  by  its  disturbing  influence  rather  than  by- 
actual  vision  another  mighty  element,  as  the  old  and 
watchful  astronomer  recognised  the  planet  Neptune 
by  its  influence  on  other  heavenly  bodies  before  it 
came  within  reach  of  his  telescope/  That  unseen 
power  was  of  course  the  Bishop,"  said  Jebb.  "•  I 
venture  to  think  there  is  one  difference  between 
the  astronomical  discovery  made  by  the  right  hon. 
gentleman  and  that  of  Neptune.  The  actual  priority 
of  discovery  in  the  latter  case  was  due  to  a  young 
man  afterwards  famous  as  Professor  Adams,  but 
the  planet  was  discovered  almost  simultaneously 
by  the  French  astronomer  Leverrier.  The  glory 
of  the  new  discovery  is  not  shared  by  the  right 
hon.  gentleman  with  any  competitor ;  it  belongs 
exclusively  to  himself.  How  he  calculates  the  de- 
flecting influence  of  an  invisible  Bishop  on  the  orbit 
of  a  County  Councillor  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  ;  but 
so  far  as  I  have  observed  the  movements  of  those 
terrestrial  bodies,  I  have  not  seen  that  they  are 
particularly  attracted  by  the  ecclesiastical  planet." 
He  then  tried  to  explain  the  broad  effects  of  the  Bill 
on  education.  After  a  long  debate,  the  Bill  passed 
the  third  reading  on  December  3rd.  The  eight 
months'  struggle  was  over. 

Jebb  had  been  keenly  interested  in  securing  the 
presence  of  women  on  the  education  committees, 
and  had  in  November  written  to  the  Times  urging 
this  point  again. 


1902]         Women  on  Education  Committees  383 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Times. 

'*  Sir, 

As,  to  my  great  regret,  I  cannot  be  at  the 
House  of  Commons  to-day,  would  you  allow  me  to 
say  that  otherwise  I  should  have  hoped  to  move  an 
amendment  which  stands  in  my  name  on  the  paper, 
with  a  view  to  securing  the  presence  of  women  on 
the  education  committees  of  the  local  authorities  ? 
Under  the  Bill  as  it  stands  women  are  eligible  for 
appointment  to  those  committees  ;  but  it  is  most 
desirable  that  every  scheme  made  under  Clause  12 
should  expressly  provide  for  the  inclusion  of  women. 
In  1900,  out  of  115  county  and  county  borough 
councils,  only  some  twenty  had  co-opted  women  on 
to  their  technical  instruction  committees.  The  new 
local  authorities  for  education  will  doubtless,  in  many 
or  most  cases,  be  fully  alive  to  the  vital  importance 
of  placing  women  on  the  committees ;  but  it  is  not 
impossible  that  there  should  be  exceptions  to  that 
rule  ;  and  against  such  exceptions  it  is  needful  to 
guard.  During  more  than  thirty  years  women  have 
done  admirable  work  both  for  elementary  and  for 
secondary  education.  Women  were  members  of  the 
Royal  Commission  on  Secondary  Education  ap- 
pointed in  1893.  Women  are  now  members  of  the 
Consultative  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Education. 
All  who  have  been  their  colleagues  on  those  or 
similar  bodies  can  attest  the  high  value  of  their 
assistance.  In  constantly  increasing  numbers  women 
are  studying  the  principles  and  methods  of  education 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  are  devoting  practical 


384  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1902 

energy  to  raising  the  standard  of  female  education 
in  the  country.  The  extraordinary  advance  made 
in  this  respect  during  the  past  generation  is  shown 
by  the  success  of  women  at  the  Universities,  in  the 
professions,  and  in  business.  It  can  no  longer  be 
supposed  that  in  any  district  the  local  authorities 
would  have  difficulty  in  finding  women  qualified  and 
willing  to  serve  on  the  education  committees.  To 
secure  their  co-operation  is  an  object  of  the  very 
first  national  importance. 

I  am.  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

R.    C.    J  EBB. 

Cambridge,  Nov.  7." 

Just  before  leaving  England  in  December,  he 
was  gratified  by  receiving  a  memorial  signed  by 
some  of  the  ablest  women  in  England  thanking 
him  for  this  service. 

In  March,  1903,  this  telegram  came  from  the 
Prime  Minister :  ''  I  have  just  proposed  you  as  a 
Trustee  of  the  British  Museum  and  you  have  been 
unanimously  elected."  The  vacancy  had  been 
created  by  the  death  of  Lord  Acton,  to  succeed 
whom  was  in  Jebb's  eyes  an  additional  distinction. 
Dr  Garnett  wrote : 

"  No  more  appropriate  successor  to  Lord  Acton  could 
have  been  found,  and  I  trust  that  you  will  find  it  in  your 
power  to  perform  more  for  the  Institution  than  could  be 
effected  by  Lord  Acton  who  was  so  much  out  of  England. 
You  have  already  striven  to  benefit  the  Museum  by 


1902]      Portrait  painted  for  Trinity  College      385 

your  excellent  Quarterly  article  on  the  catalogue  and  will 
find  many  other  subjects  to  which  your  attention  may  be 
directed  with  advantage." 

This  appointment  was  peculiarly  agreeable  to  his 
tastes,  the  British  Museum  a  place  of  all  others  he 
could  understand  and  appreciate  :  and  when,  shortly 
after,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Standing 
Committee,  its  meetings  were  always  considered  a 
prior  engagement.  He  had  happily  more  free  time 
now  that  no  subject  was  before  the  House  to  make 
his  close  attendance  necessary.  He  had  to  bring  in 
one  Bill,  the  Addenbrooke's  Hospital  Bill.  To  his 
surprise  many  objections  were  made  to  a  measure 
apparently  simple,  which  caused  delay  and  gave 
trouble.  He  asked  an  Irish  Member  why  he  put 
obstacles  in  its  way.  ''You  had  better  talk  to  my 
leader"  was  the  enigmatical  answer.  However,  the 
Bill  reached  harbour  at  last,  and,  after  passing  through 
the  Upper  House,  became  law. 

To  go  back  a  little.  In  November,  1902,  this 
kind  letter  had  come  from  the  Master  of  Trinity. 

"Trinity  Lodge, 

November^  1902. 
My  Dear  Lady  Jebb, 

I  have  a  piece  of  good  news  for  you,  if  it  has  not 
already  reached  your  ears.  We  have  just  had  a  well- 
attended  meeting  in  the  Lodge  at  which  it  was  resolved 
with  great  heartiness  to  place  a  portrait  of  your  husband 

in  our  College  Hall The  favourers  of  the  plan  will  not 

be  confined  to  Trinity,  though  it  originates  in  the  walls, 
J.  M.  25 


386  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1903 

to  the  glory  of  which  the  great  scholar  has  so  powerfully 
contributed.  Not  that  we  are  at  all  disposed  to  forget  the 
statesman  in  the  scholar  or  either  of  them  in  the  dear 
friend." 

Sir  George  Reid,  at  that  time  President  of  the 
Scottish  Academy,  consented  to  paint  the  portrait, 
and  the  first  two  sittings  were  given  in  Edinburgh 
before  we  went  to  Rome  to  be  present  at  a  Congress 
of  Historical  Studies  which  assembled  there  in  April. 
Sir  Richard  had  been  appointed  a  delegate  to  repre- 
sent Cambridge  University,  the  British  Academy, 
and  the  Hellenic  Society.  It  was  not  one  of  our 
happy  journeys.  All  the  world  was  going  in  the  same 
direction  ;  the  trains  were  crowded,  the  heat  and  dust 
intolerable,  the  carriages  uncomfortable.  Even  the 
St  Gothard  route,  by  which  we  had  travelled  once 
as  on  a  journey  through  Paradise,  lost  all  charm 
when  a  party  of  school  girls  rushed  up  and  down 
the  corridors,  trying  to  secure  a  favourable  view 
from  the  windows  by  leaning  across  the  seated 
passengers. 

Hardly  had  we  arrived  in  Rome  and  settled  down 
at  our  hotel  when  a  strike  broke  out  among  the 
men  who  had  to  do  with  locomotion.  Not  a  cab  or 
carriage  of  any  kind  could  be  had,  and  for  two  dread- 
ful days  scarcely  an  electric  tram.  Never  before  had 
Sir  Richard  been  persuaded  to  use  either  trams  or 
omnibuses — he  had  only  one  objection  to  them,  he 
said,  that  he  particularly  disliked  being  pressed  into 
a  squalid  object  by  strangers — but  here  even  this 
small  prejudice  had  to  be  sacrificed.     Despite  these 


T903]  Visit  to  Rome  387 

flies  in  our  amber  we  spent  a  delightful  fortnight  in 
Rome.  The  Congress  was  naturally  the  centre  of 
interest,  but  there  were  excursions  to  Tivoli  and 
elsewhere  by  train,  in  company  with  American 
friends  whom  we  had  not  often  the  chance  of  seeing ; 
there  were  lectures  in  the  newly  excavated  Forum ; 
there  was  the  Coliseum  by  moonlight,  and  one  night 
illuminated — there  was  always  Rome ! 

On  our  way  back  to  England  we  stopped  over 
Easter  Sunday  at  Milan,  and  saw  the  Easter  cere- 
monies in  the  Cathedral.  We  had  expected  these 
to  be  more  impressive.  The  absence  of  peace  about 
them  hindered  for  us  the  devotional  feeling.  The 
frequent  robing  and  disrobing  of  the  Archbishop,  the 
continual  going  and  coming  of  about  fifty  monks  in 
brown  stuff  robes,  which  to  our  ignorance  seemed 
without  object,  the  flapping  of  their  loose  slippers  as 
they  shuffled  about  on  the  stone  floors,  checked  our 
reverent  participation  in  what  no  doubt  to  the  in- 
structed Catholic  was  extreme  devotion.  England 
seemed  especially  cool  and  clean  and  sweet  when 
we  returned  to  it  in   May. 

In  July  we  went  to  Charterhouse  to  be  present 
at  the  inauguration  of  the  Memorial  Cloister,  and 
the  unveiling  of  the  tablet  which  recorded  the 
purpose  of  the  Memorial  and  the  names  of  those 
Carthusians  who  had  fallen  in  the  recent  war ;  at 
the  same  time  a  monument  which  Lord  Alverstone 
had  erected  in  memory  of  his  son  was  also  to  be 
unveiled.  In  his  invitation  to  Sir  Richard  the 
Headmaster  wrote : 

25—2 


388  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1903 

"  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  as  chairman  of  the 
General  Board,  will  be  here  to  perform  the  ceremony,  but 
particularly  hopes  that  the  central  responsibility  of  speak- 
ing will  not  be  thrown  upon  him.  I  think  of  one  speech 
only,  apart  from  the  Archbishop's  words,  and  do  hope  you 
will  prevail  upon  yourself  to  pronounce  the  Epitaphius. 
General  Baden  Powell  will  be  with  us  but  will  not  speak. 
Lord  Alverstone  under  the  circumstances  will  be  inappro- 
priate. I  should  like  you  to  be  responsible  for  all  that 
needs  saying  of  the  Epideictic  kind.  There  will  I  expect 
be  a  large  though  certainly  an  appreciative  audience,  for  we 
ask  all  old  Carthusians  and  the  subscribers  exceed  a  thou- 
sand." 

The  celebration  v^as  in  the  open  air,  and  the 
speeches  on  such  a  subject  seemed  to  gain  in  effect 
by  the  perfect  peace  and  calm  of  the  beautiful  day 
and  place. 

Sir  Richard  spoke  as  follows : 

"  KoKKicTTOv  epavov  Trpoteirro. 

It  is  as  an  Old  Carthusian  that  I  have  been  asked 
to  speak  a  fev^  vi^ords  to-day.  After  the  ceremonies, 
so  impressive  in  their  simplicity,  v^hich  have  just  been 
performed,  and  after  the  strains  of  the  antiphon  to 
which  we  have  listened,  I  feel,  as  you  will  feel,  that 
the  simplest  words  are  best  in  unison  with  what  is 
in  all  our  hearts.  All  Carthusians  are  proud  of  the 
share  taken  by  their  schoolfellows  in  the  toils  and 
sufferings,  in  the  dangers  and  in  the  triumphs  of  that 
great  struggle  in  South  Africa,  by  which  the 
resources  of  our  Empire  and  the  qualities  of  our  race 
were  put  to  a  trial  severer  than  any  which  they  had 


1903]  speech  at  Charterhouse  389 

known  for  several  generations.  The  total  number 
of  Old  Carthusians  engaged  in  the  war  was,  I  believe, 
about  500.  They  belonged  to  various  branches  of 
the  British  forces,  and  occupied  diverse  positions  : 
some  held  important  commands  ;  there  were  other 
cases  like  that  of  a  young  Carthusian  soldier  who  was 
serving  in  the  ranks  of  a  cavalry  regiment  when  he 
was  killed  in  action,  only  a  few  days  before  the  news 
came — news  which  was  never  to  meet  his  eyes — 
that  he  had  received  a  commission.  From  that  great 
Carthusian  muster-roll  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
select  names  of  exceptional  distinction  ;  such  names 
rise  in  my  thoughts  at  this  moment — they  almost 
come  to  my  lips  :  and  yet  I  feel  that  the  spirit  of  our 
commemoration  to-day — its  distinctive  and  essential 
meaning — are  such  as  should  rather  dissuade  us  from 
any  attempt  at  selection.  The  tribute  which  we 
now  render  is  collective,  and  in  that  fact  resides 
its  highest  significance.  The  records  of  individual 
prowess  are  indeed  preserved  by  us  with  pride ;  they 
are  dear  to  all  Carthusians  ;  but  the  festival  which 
we  are  now  keeping  has  a  place  apart  in  our  calen- 
dar :  to-day  our  thoughts  are  turned,  not  to  the  most 
successful  and  the  most  illustrious  alone,  but  to  all 
Carthusians  who  served  their  country  in  the  field. 

It  is  the  indwelling  spirit  of  a  great  and  ancient 
school  which  gives  unity  to  this  celebration.  A 
stranger  to  the  public  schools  of  England  might  find 
it  hard  to  realise  the  full  sense  in  which  this  is  true. 
But  all  public  school  men  know  what  it  means.  The 
attachment  to  one's  old  school  is  not  merely  a  matter 


390  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1903 

of  sentiment ;  a  sentiment  indeed  there  is,  a  strong 
and  healthy  one  ;  but  there  is  also  much  more  :  there 
is  our  knowledge  that  the  school-world,  and  all  that 
we  learned  in  it — not  only,  perhaps  even  not  chiefly, 
from  b9oks — the  habits  and  associations  formed,  the 
friendships  enjoyed — went  far  towards  moulding  our 
characters,  and  thereby  towards  shaping  our  after- 
lives. Our  school  is  a  country  within  the  fatherland  ; 
membership  of  it  is  an  intimate  franchise  :  few  boys 
can  ever  have  passed  through  such  a  school  without 
in  some  measure  appreciating  the  rights  of  that 
unique  citizenship,  and  in  some  degree  responding  to 
its  duties.  For  no  one,  probably,  is  the  public 
school  life  better  than  for  him  who  is  destined  to  the 
profession  of  arms.  At  school  he  can  learn,  not  by 
a  mechanical  or  rigid  routine,  but  in  a  large  and 
liberal  sense,  the  two  supreme  functions  of  the 
soldier — to  obey  and  to  command.  If  one  should 
try  to  sum  up  the  public  school  spirit  in  a  single 
word,  that  word  would  be  'loyalty.' 

There  were  occasions  in  the  ancient  world  when 
a  city  paid  collective  honours  to  her  sons  who  had 
fallen  in  battle.  But  the  honours  which  our  Car- 
thusian city  renders  in  this  fair  place  to-day  differ 
in  one  signal  respect  from  any  which  Athens 
bestowed  in  the  Outer  Cerameicus.  This  Cloister — 
of  which  the  first  stone  was  laid  by  our  renowned 
schoolfellow,  Major-General  Baden-Powell — is  dedi- 
cated alike  to  the  dead  and  to  the  living.  A  time 
must  come  with  years  when  those  arches  can  no 
longer  re-echo  the  footfall  of  any  man  who  bore  arms 


1903]  speech  at  Charterhouse  391 

in  the  great  African  War ;  when  the  heart-aches 
which  that  war  caused  shall  long  have  been  lulled  to 
rest,  when  the  glories  which  it  bequeathed  shall  long 
have  been  heirlooms  ;  and  when,  as  we  may  hope, 
the  good  seed  which  is  even  now  being  sown  on  the 
distant  veldt  shall  have  come  to  the  fulness  of  flower 
and  fruit.  The  Cloister  which  has  been  opened  to- 
day will  remain  to  tell  the  Carthusians  of  that  time 
that  on  this  tranquil  and  hallowed  spot,  where  brave 
lives  have  their  record,  the  shadow  of  death  never 
fell  as  a  dividing  line  ;  and  that  those  who  established 
this  memorial,  in  days  when  the  great  war  was 
recent,  knew  no  distinction  between  the  man  who 
took  his  life  in  his  hands  for  his  country,  and  the 
man  who  was  called  upon  to  lay  it  down. 

There  is  another  Carthusian  cloister  in  London, 
which  some  of  us  knew  long  ago — a  cloister  fraught 
with  memories  of  old  times,  though  not  with  such 
associations  as  these.  That  fact  may  remind  us  how 
completely  the  unity  of  Carthusian  feeling,  which  is 
so  marked  to-day,  has  survived  the  change  of  abode. 
We  have  present  with  us  here  the  honoured  leader  of 
the  migration,  the  first  Headmaster  of  the  school  in 
its  new  seat :  to-day  he  sees  a  fresh  proof,  if  any  were 
wanted,  that,  though  there  have  been  two  Carthusian 
homes,  there  is  but  one  Carthusian  brotherhood.  In 
the  long  annals  of  our  school  there  are  names  not 
a  few  of  men  who  have  done  good  work  in  Church 
and  State,  in  the  professions,  in  the  pursuits  of  litera- 
ture, of  the  sciences  and  of  the  arts.  But  there  are 
times  of  stress,  such  as  those  through  which  our 


392  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1903 

country  lately  passed,  when  the  supreme  necessity  is 
for  the  service  of  the  soldier.  Truth — that  truth  of 
purpose  which  must  animate  all  high  effort — then 
makes  her  simplest  and  sternest  claim  upon  devotion. 
It  is  then  that  we  understand  the  words  of  the  poet, 
speaking  of  the  quest  for  truth  in  its  relation  to 
patriotism  : — 

*  Many  in  sad  faith  sought  for  her, 
Many  with  crossed  hands  sighed  for  her; 
But  these  our  brothers  wrought  for  her, 
At  life's  dear  peril  fought  for  her, 
So  loved  her  that  they  died  for  her. 
***** 

They  followed  her  and  found  her, 
Where  all  may  hope  to  find, 
Not  in  the  ashes  of  the  burnt-out  mind, 

But  beautiful,  with  danger's  sweetness  round  her.' 

This  is  our  feeling  to-day,  when  we  honour  our 
Carthusian  soldiers,  the  living  and  the  departed. 
May  the  old  school  continue  to  flourish !  May  it 
produce,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  good  men  and 
true,  loyal  subjects  of  their  Sovereign,  trusted  ser- 
vants of  the  State,  steadfast  champions  of  the  nation 
and  the  Empire  at  its  need,  faithful  guardians  of  our 
ancient  tradition,  worthy  inheritors  of  the  Carthusian 
name ! " 

His  portrait  painted  for  Trinity  by  Sir  George 
Reid  was  finished  in  July.  It  was  unfortunate  that 
the  only  time  when  both  artist  and  subject  could  be 
together  in  London  was  during  the  season  when  hay- 


1903]  Letter  from  Dr  Headlain  393 

fever  was  rife — a  scourge  from  which  Sir  Richard 
always  suffered  with  severity,  and  which  altered  for 
a  time  both  eyes  and  features.  Sir  George  Reid 
tried  hard  to  keep  its  traces  out  of  the  picture,  but 
he  had  to  paint  what  he  saw,  with  the  result  that  the 
portrait,  otherwise  fine  and  noble,  has  a  look  of 
distress  not  at  all  characteristic  of  its  subject  when 
in  normal  health. 

For  the  remainder  of  the  summer  except  when 
giving  away  prizes  and  making  speeches  at  Bangor, 
Durham  and  elsewhere,  he  was  occupied  with  his 
own  special  work.  In  July  he  received  from  the 
Greek  Minister  in  London  the  diploma  and  insignia 
of  Commander  of  the  Order  of  the  Saviour,  and 
returned,  in  accordance  with  regulations,  the  Order 
of  the  Gold  Cross  which  he  had  held  since  1878. 

Among  the  mass  of  letters  which  made  up  his 
daily  correspondence,  asking  favours  of  one  kind  or 
another — to  open  a  school,  to  give  away  prizes, 
to  deliver  addresses,  to  join  a  Balkan  Committee, 
to  pronounce  for  or  against  fiscal  reform — it  was 
delightful  to  receive  one  of  a  totally  different  nature. 
He  brought  it  to  his  wife  for  the  pleasure  he  always 
had  in  sharing  any  good  thing  with  her. 

From  Walter  Headlam,  Esq.,  LittD. 

"  King's  College,  Cambridge. 

September  2^th,    1903. 

I  never  differ  from  your  deliberate  opinions  without 
grave  misgiving,  and  to  my  great  satisfaction  I  find  myself 
coming  round  to  your  opinion  of  the  value  of  Composition. 
By  severe  reasoning  I  got  to  the  point  that  Knowledge  and 


394  ^^'^  Richard  J  ebb  [1903 

Taste  are  the  Swa/txt?,  and  Composition  the  evepyeia.  Then 
says  the  advocate  of  Composition,  '  Very  well ;  I  want  the 
evepyeia  for  a  test  of  the  hvvafjn^ ' :  and  there  I'm  posed.  I 
cast  about  to  think  of  people  who  possessed  the  hvvafiL<; 
without  being  able  to  translate  it  into  evepyeia,  and  unless 
you  can  supply  me  with  examples  I  am  bound  to  change 
my  view.  If  he  had  been  required  to  do  it,  Cobet  could 
have  written  Attic  Prose,  and  Porson  Attic  Comedy,  and 
Bentley  in  the  manner  of  Callimachus  to  some  extent;  and 
any  one  in  any  style  that  he  commands  ;  so  far  as  he 
has  mastered  it  The  ivipyeca  may  be  sometimes  more  or 
less  unconscious ;  and  I  certainly  don't  think  that  constant 
exercise  of  it  is  necessary  ;  and.  Classics  being  a  house  with 
many  mansions,  pupils  can  appreciate  much  and  scholars  can 
do  plenty  of  good  work  without  this  special  power  over  the 
language ;  but  I  think  those  things  will  do  no  harm  to  say 
so  long  as  I  vote  with  the  Government  on  the  main  point. 
I  shall  have  to  write  the  whole  thing  again  a  third  time, 
but  that  will  be  a  lighter  labour  in  my  joy  at  having  found 
salvation." 

In  November  the  Master  of  Trinity  wrote  to 
announce  the  hanging  of  the  portrait. 

"Trinity  Lodge,  Cambridge, 

November  ^th,   1903. 

I  hope  you  will  like  your  final  resting-place  in  the 
Hall.  The  Memorials  Committee,  to  whom  its  position 
was  referred,  met  to-day,  and  we  agreed  in  giving  you 
a  central  place  on  the  same  side  of  the  Room  as  that 
occupied  by  Cayley,  Clerk  Maxwell,  Michael  Foster  and 
Henry  Sidgwick.  They  would  all  be  proud  to  welcome 
you,  and  you  will  feel  at  home  amid  such  '  a  band  of 
brothers.'  The  Portrait  will  be  a  joy  and  a  pride  for  long 
years  to  come." 


1903]  Fiscal  Reform  395 

Mr  Chamberlain  had  now  made  his  manifesto  on 
Fiscal  Reform,  and  the  country  was  seething  with 
the  new  ideas  presented  to  it — new  at  least  in 
England  where  Protection  had  had  no  foothold  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  At  a  meeting  in  the 
Guildhall  at  Cambridge  in  November,  which  was 
addressed  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr 
Austen  Chamberlain,  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  seconded  a 
vote  of  thanks  to  the  speaker.  Finding  his  position 
misunderstood  by  some  of  his  hearers,  he  wrote  to 
the  Editor  of  the  Cambridge  Chronicle. 

"Sir, 

At  the  meeting  in  the  Guildhall  which 
was  addressed  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
on  Nov.  26,  I  seconded,  in  a  short  speech,  the 
Resolution  which  was  then  moved  and  adopted. 
The  purport  of  that  Resolution  was  to  express  un- 
abated confidence  in  His  Majesty's  Government, 
and  to  endorse  the  policy  announced  by  the  Prime 
Minister  in  his  speeches  at  Sheffield  and  Bristol. 
Some  errors  have  crept  into  certain  passages  in  your 
report  of  my  brief  remarks  ;  and  I  should  be  obliged 
if  you  would  permit  me  to  correct  them.  Refer- 
ring to  the  policy  stated  by  the  Prime  Minister,  I 
said  : — 

'  That  policy  is  accepted  by  such  a  man  as  Sir 
Michael  Hicks  Beach,  a  distinguished  ex-Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  an  eminent  economist  and  finan- 
cier, who  has  always  been,  and  is  now,  a  Free 
Trader.      A    temperate   and   prudent    use   of  such 


•^      OF  THE  ^ 

UNIVERSITY 

OF  y 


39^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [^903 

negotiation  as  that  policy  contemplates  would  not 
tend,  in  his  opinion, — and  in  the  opinion  of  many- 
others  who  have  studied  the  question,  though  few 
can  bring  to  it  such  knowledge  and  experience  as 
his, — would  not  tend  to  set  up  a  system  of  protection 
in  this  country  ;  it  would  rather  tend  to  discourage 
aggressive  protectionism  abroad,  and  so  to  secure 
great  advantages  for  us  by  expanding  the  freedom 
of  trade.  On  the  other  hand,  the  essential  aims  and 
principles  of  Free  Trade  (as  distinguished  from  its 
formulas)  may  happen  to  be  obstructed  rather  than 
promoted  by  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  letter  of  doc- 
trines formulated  a  long  time  ago.  In  the  course  of 
the  last  fifty  years,  and  more  especially  in  the  latter 
part  of  that  period,  many  conditions  of  industry  and 
commerce  have  been  completely  transformed.'  With 
regard  to  the  Prime  Minister's  claim  on  the  confi- 
dence of  Unionists,  I  added  : — *  We  should  give 
credit  to  him  and  to  his  Government  for  discretion, 
for  patriotism,  for  knowledge  of  the  elementary  con- 
ditions on  which  the  welfare  of  the  country  and  the 
Empire  will  continue  to  depend.  We  should  also 
cultivate  a  sense  of  proportion  in  politics,  remem- 
bering how  much  easier  it  is  to  break  up  a  great 

political  party  than  to  reunite  it What  is  needed 

just  now  is  a  little  patience,  reasonable  trust  in  our 
leaders,  tolerance  for  varying  shades  of  fiscal  ortho- 
doxy, and  steadfast  adherence  to  those  broader 
principles  of  political  faith  on  which  party  loyalty 
must  ultimately  rest.  Let  us  who  are  Unionists 
remember,  each  and  all  of  us,  the  great  responsibility 


1903]  Letter  on  Fiscal  Reform  397 

which  Hes  upon  us  at  this  juncture  :  let  us  strive  to 
maintain  the  solidarity,  and  to  preserve  the  power 
for  national  good,  of  the  great  historic  party  to  which 
we  belong.' 

I  am.  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
R.  C  Jebb." 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

LETTERS.      ORDER   OF   MERIT.      DEFEAT    OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

1904— 1905. 

In  1904  Jebb  came  back  from  the  Riviera  in 
time  to  be  present  at  a  meeting  of  the  Trinity 
College  Mission  at  Camberwell  on  the  14th  of 
January.  ''Expedition  to  Camberwell  a  success" 
he  wrote  to  his  wife.  "  Stewart  called  for  me  and 
we  drove  to  Trinity  Mission — in  the  heart  of  dreary 
London.  At  supper  sat  between  the  Warden  and  a 
very  intelligent  young  milkman,  whom  I  found  agree- 
able and  interesting.  Talking  of  women's  wages,  he 
said  a  sister  of  his  was  once  employed  in  a  shop 
where  she  had  to  attend  every  day  from  8.30  a.m. 
to  7  p.m.  (half  hour  for  dinner  and  another  for  tea) ; 
no  holidays  except  paid  for  ;  wages  thirteen  shillings 
a  week!!!  My  little  speech  was  all  right.  Weather 
fairly  bright:  white  frost  this  morning;  cold,  but  not 
too  cold.  Barometer  'Set  Fair':  but  ban's  notion 
of  'Fair'  is  sometimes  peculiar."  (His  wife  had  re- 
mained abroad  for  a  fortnight  longer  and  had  asked 
for  reports  of  the  weather  in  order  to  fix  the  time 
of  her  return.) 


1904]  British  Academy  399 

The  International  Association  of  Academies  met 
in  London  in  May,  and  happily  the  new  British 
Academy  had  now  received  its  charter  and  was 
ready  to  take  its  share  in  the  many  functions  which 
followed.  The  first  meeting  was  held  in  the  rooms 
of  the  Royal  Society,  and  Sir  Michael  Foster, 
K.C.B.,  was  elected  President.  Jebb  brought  for- 
ward a  proposition  of  the  British  Academy — "that 
the  International  Association  approves  of  a  project 
for  constructing  a  new  Thesaurus  of  Ancient  Greek.' 
This  evoked  an  interesting  discussion  and  was  carried 
unanimously.  He  was  one  of  a  Committee  appointed 
to  inquire  as  to  means,  methods,  and  general  initial 
considerations.  The  Association  visited  Cambridge, 
and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  a  short  visit  from  Professor 
Theodor  Gomperz,  the  delegate  from  Vienna,  and  his 
wife — which  to  one  of  us  at  least  was  the  pleasantest 
event  of  the  meeting.  In  writing  from  Oxford  to  tell 
Sir  Richard  that  the  ''Thesaurus"  Committee  had 
appointed  him,  Jebb,  their  President,  Herr  Gomperz 
added,  ''As  to  the  question  which  is  finest,  Oxford 
or  Cambridge,  I  should  like  to  have  the  English  say 
what  Goethe  said  when  asked  whether  he  or  Schiller 
were  the  superior:  'Sie  sollten  froh  sein,  zwei  solche 
Kerle  zu  haben.'" 

On  the  5th  of  July  the  Hellenic  Society  celebrated 
its  25th  anniversary.  Of  112  original  members  only 
twenty-seven  were  now  living — and  these  might  well 
feel  a  thrill  of  satisfaction  in  telling  and  hearing  of 
the  valuable  work  the  Society  had  accomplished  in 
its  first  quarter  of  a  century.     The  very  large  meeting 


400  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1904 

was  a  real  success,  and   Sir  Richard's  address   as 
President  was  well  received. 

Among  the  honorary  members  present  was 
Professor  Gildersleeve  of  Baltimore.  He  and 
Mrs  Gildersleeve  were  making  some  short  stay  in 
London,  and  the  following  letters  tell  chiefly  of 
Sir  Richard's  efforts  to  see  as  much  of  them  as 
possible  in  such  a  short  time. 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"House  of  Commons, 

July  ^th,  1904. 
As  to  the  Gildersleeves,  I  feel  that  three  'courses 
are  open  to  the  embarrassed  General.'  (i)  To 
get  them  to  come  down  from  Saturday  to  Monday. 
Objection:  the  house  will  be  full  with  our  other 
guests.  (2)  To  ask  them  to  the  Albemarle  to  dinner. 
(3)  To  ask  them  to  tea  on  the  Terrace  and  dinner 
in  the  House.  Whatever  it  is  to  be,  it  must  be  done 
quickly.  If  you  would  wire  your  advice  fully,  I 
would  repay  you  on  my  return. 

July  ytk.  All  went  well  yesterday.  The 
Gildersleeves  dined  with  me  (alone)  at  Albemarle. 
The  dinner  was  fair — some  things  good — though  I 
have  known  it  better.  Then  we  drove  to  the  House. 
Just  as  I  had  shown  them  Westminster  Hall  and  we 
had  entered  St  Stephen's  Hall,  a  division  sounded 
and  I  had  to  rush.  When  I  came  back  we  went 
into  the  members'  lobby  and  let  Mrs  Gildersleeve 
'peep.'  Then  we  moved  towards  the  Terrace.  An- 
other division :  had  to  leave  guests  in  Library  lobby. 


1904]  In  the  House  40  j 

Terrace  at  last.  Here  came  the  real  success  of  the 
evening.  I  had  asked  Sir  R.  Finlay  to  dinner  and 
he  had  told  me  he  was  dining  at  the  House  with  his 
wife,  and  so  I  then  asked  him  if  they  would  both 
join  us  on  the  Terrace.  And  they  both  did.  And 
they  were  so  very  nice.  Lady  Finlay  was  going  to 
Mrs  Gully's  Gallery.  Through  Sir  R.  she  somehow 
managed  to  get  leave  to  bring  Mrs  Gildersleeve  also. 
Was  not  that  nice  of  her?  So  up  they  went,  Finlay 
taking  them  while  I  kept  Gildersleeve  company  on 
the  Terrace.  But  in  five  minutes  a  division  came — 
or  rather  a  series  of  divisions.  The  House  was  a 
perfect  bear-garden  on  account  of  the  closure  at 
1 1  p.m.  Mrs  Gildersleeve  had  an  exciting  evening 
for  seeing  the  place.  It  was  12.15  before  Finlay 
and  I   could  go  for  the  ladies. 


July  20th,   1904,  3  p.m. 

This  is  Wednesday  to  the  multitude  :  to  the 
M.P.  it  is  still  Tuesday.  The  sitting  of  the  House 
which  began  at  2  p.m.  yesterday  has  lasted  all  through 
the  night,  and  is  still  going  on.  It  is  the  Committee 
on  the  Budget.  When  it  is  finished,  we  are  to  go 
away,  and  there  is  to  be  no  Wednesday  at  all. 
That  consummation  will  be  reached  before  7.30, 
they  say 

Went  to  Reid  for  last  time.  Picture  not  quite 
so  good  (I  think)  as  it  was  at  one  moment.  I  pleaded 
for  lightening  of   that  line  on  my  face  which   you 

J.  M.  26 


402  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1904 

unkindly  say  expresses  impatience  of  fellow-creatures, 
and  he  consented,  only  saying  'that  in  nature  it  was 
much  more  strongly  marked.'  Wish  he  had  made 
me  a  more  cheerful  and  spirited-looking  chappy. 
Aweel.  Picture  to  come  to  Springfield  in  about 
10  days 

I  half  thought  of  going  down  to-night,  but  thought, 
that  on  the  whole,  to-morrow  morning  would  be  more 
comfortable,  both  for  household,  and  for  another — 
whose  convenience  is,  however,  a  secondary  con- 
sideration. 

This  prolonged  heat  has  enfeebled  me.  I  should 
like  to  have  my  yacht  waiting  for  me  at  Southampton, 
i.e.,  if  my  wife  was  coming  too — but  she  would  not" 
[she  was  too  bad  a  sailor]. 

''Saturday's  Times  will  be  interesting.  The  Duke 
is  to  ask  Lord  Lansdowne  how  far  the  Government 
intend  to  support  preferential  tariffs  and  impose 
taxes  on  food.  It  is  high  time  something  was  done. 
I  wonder  what  Sir  Michael  Hicks  Beach  thinks. 
He  is  retiring  at  the  end  of  this  Parliament,  and 
leaves  no  one  behind  him  who  is  capable  of  taking 
his  place  as  a  leader  of  the  Conservative  Free- 
traders, who  support  Balfour's  Sheffield  programme, 
but  will  not  go  further.  For  a  University  member 
like  myself — at  Cambridge  at  least — the  sound 
policy  is  to  say  nothing  about  the  fiscal  question 
at  present,  but  to  stand  simply  as  a  loyal  supporter 
of  Mr  Balfour's  Government." 


1904]  Fiscal  Debate  in  the  Lords  403 

To  HIS  Wife  (at  Newton,  Nairn). 

"  Springfield,  Cambridge, 
Saturday,  July  2  7,rd,   1904. 

So  the  'Malacca'  affair  is  going  to  be  settled 
peacefully.  You  will  have  noticed  the  calm  tone 
of  the  letters  from  Springfield  during  the  last  two 
days:  that  was  because  an  experienced  politician 
knew  that  it  was  all  right.  Have  been  reading 
debate  in  Lords  yesterday  ( Times  of  Saturday).  The 
Duke's  speech  was  clear,  strong,  and  to  the  point. 
It  is  just  what  one  wanted  said.  Lord  Lansdowne's 
answer  struck  me  as  very  unsatisfactory.  But  at 
least  he  declared  that  the  Government,  as  such, 
is    opposed    to   preferential    tariffs  and  taxation   of 

food On  Monday  (I  see)  there  is  to  be  a  meeting 

of  Unionist  Freetraders  in  a  Committee  Room  at 
the  House.  They  are  to  consider,  among  other 
things,  what  they  are  to  do  about  the  Vote  of 
Censure  in  the  House  on  August   i 

Yesterday,  I  wrote  my  letter  to  Sir  Arthur  Godley, 
about  the  Cambridge  view  of  the  India  Office's 
proposal  as  to  the  age  limit  of  candidates,  and  then 
posted  it ;  and  'triked'  round  by  Grantchester 

As  the  post  here  goes  out  only  at  8  p.m.  on 
Sunday,  this  will  be  my  last  letter.  Please  give  my 
kindest  regards  to  Lady  Finlay. 

P.S.  If  any  Emporium  should  be  visited  by 
Madame  on  Tuesday,  it  may  be  mentioned  that 
PENKNIFE,  in  its  present  condition,  is  a  standing 
menace  to  life  and  property,  especially  to  waistcoat 
pockets." 

26 — 2 


404  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1904 

Everything  now  pointed  to  a  General  Election, 
and  constituencies  were  asking  their  candidates  to 
define  their  position,  especially  with  reference  to  the 
new  propaganda.  In  answer  to  a  question  on  this 
point  Sir  Richard  wrote  to  the  President  of  the 
Cambridge  University  Free  Trade  Association. 

To  THE  Hon.  Arthur  Elliot. 

"Springfield,  Cambridge, 

August  ^th^  1904. 

My  Dear  Elliot, 

...I  am,  and  have  always  been,  a  Free  Trader. 
I  am  opposed  to  Protection.  I  am  also  a  Conserva- 
tive, and  a  supporter  of  Mr  Balfour's  administration. 
Since  I  have  been  in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  have 
always  supported  the  Unionist  Government,  which 
I  was  returned  to  support. 

I  do  not  think  it  desirable  to  join  the  Cambridge 
University  Free  Trade  Association. 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.    C.    J  EBB." 

On  August  17th  the  British  Association  met  at 
Cambridge.  The  attendance  of  members  was  very 
large.  Was  not  the  Prime  Minister  of  England  the 
President  of  the  year,  and  would  not  his  address  most 
certainly  be  interesting  1  And  would  many  of  the 
members  ever  have  again  so  good  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  and  hearing  him  ?    Besides,  Is  not  Cambridge 


1904]  Letter  from  Dr  Butler  405 

a  charming  place  to  spend  a  week  in  ?  Sir  Richard 
Jebb  joined  the  Association  and  was  elected  a  Vice- 
President  of  the  Education  Section.  This  led  to 
his  being  chosen  President  of  the  section  for  the 
next  year  and  to  his  going  to  South  Africa  in  1905. 

In  October  he  retired  from  the  Consultative 
Committee  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  was  at 
once  reappointed  by  the  President  to  serve  for 
another  term  of  six  years.  In  the  same  month  he 
was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Numismatic 
Society. 

The  subscribers  had  offered  to  his  wife  a  replica 
of  the  portrait  of  Sir  Richard  Jebb  which  they  had 
presented  to  Trinity.  The  Master  sent  the  following 
letter  to  announce  the  arrival  of  this  replica. 

"  Trinity  Lodge,  Cambridge, 

October  I'jth,   1904. 

My  Dear  Lady  Jebb, 

On  behalf  of  the  friends  who  subscribed  to 
the  portrait  of  your  husband,  which  now  hangs  in  our 
College  Hall,  I  have  the  very  pleasant  duty  of  requesting 
your  kind  acceptance  of  the  second  picture  also  painted  by 
Sir  George  Reid.  Long  may  it  hold  a  conspicuous  place 
on  the  wall  of  one  of  your  rooms,  and  long  may  at  least 
four  living  eyes  be  permitted  to  see  in  it  the  warm  regard 
and  respect  in  which  the  original  was  held  by  all  who 
knew  him 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

H.  Montagu   Butler." 


4o6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

This  autumn  Greek  was  again  put  on  its  trial  at 
both  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Oxford  disposed  of 
the  case  in  favour  of  Greek  in  an  afternoon's  sitting, 
but  in  the  Senate  House  at  Cambridge  the  discussion 
of  the  first  report  of  the  Syndicate  lasted  two  days — 
and  the  decision  was  adjourned  till  the  following  week. 
It  was  in  the  end  the  same  as  that  of  Oxford.  The 
chief  Counsel  for  the  defence  was  as  usual  the  Regius 
Professor  of  Greek.  One  of  the  points  he  made  was 
that  it  was  obviously  desirable  that  the  two  Univer- 
sities should,  as  far  as  possible,  act  together.  ''If 
however  one  of  the  two  older  Universities  retains 
Greek  to  a  larger  extent  than  the  other,  the  one 
that  so  retains  it  will  become  par  excellence  the 
University  of  the  ablest  literary  boys.  Let  members 
of  the  Senate  weigh  that  consideration." 

I  n  J  anuary,  1 905 ,  J  ebb  found  himself  in  a  difficulty. 
There  was  to  be  a  meeting  of  the  Church  Emergency 
League  in  the  Guildhall  on  the  i6th,  and  his  name 
was  on  the  notices  issued  as  seconder  of  a  resolution, 
which  he  had  not  seen  and  with  which  he  was  not 
in  agreement. 


To  HIS  Wife. 

^^ January  I'jth,   1905. 

Well,  the  meeting  is  over.      I  wrote  a  short 

speech,   knowing  that    care  was  necessary Dr 

Chase  presided,  the  Bishop  of  Ely  being  unable  to 
come.     Gorst  moved  the  resolution  in  a  speech  more 


1905]     Meeting  of  Chtirch  Emergency  League     407 

or  less  amusing.  Of  course  he  was  cheered  by  the 
fighting  parsons.  Then  Canon  Russell  got  up  to 
second.  When  he  rose  instead  of  me,  inquiring  and 
gloomy  eyes  were  turned  on  me.  Russell  made  a 
good  speech  from  the  fighting  point  of  view.  Then 
my  turn  came.  His  reference  to  me  obliged  me  to 
begin  by  a  brief  statement  of  the  facts.  I  said  I 
was  in  full  sympathy  with  their  object ;  that  I  wished 
the  managers  to  retain  independence  in  the  conduct 
and  control  of  religious  instruction,  and  that  it  was 
the  spirit  of  the  Act  of  1902  to  reserve  it  to  them, 
while  giving  control  of  the  secular  instruction  to  the 
local  authority.  I  then  explained  why  the  terms  of 
the  resolution  did  not  accurately  describe  the  essence 
of  the  situation.  The  Board  of  Education  in  its 
circular  of  July  does  nothing  new ;  it  merely  recog- 
nises the  rule  which  has  existed  since  1870  that 
attendance  at  Church  shall  not  count  as  attendance 
at  school,  except  with  the  acquiescence  of  the  Local 
Authority.  I  went  on  to  advocate  the  policy  recom- 
mended by  the  Council  of  the  National  Society  with 
the  Archbishop  at  its  head, — a  policy  of  peace  rather 
than  war.  They  heard  me  very  patiently — though  of 
course  there  were  some  derisive  interruptions — and 
at  the  end  there  was  even  applause.  From  what 
several  men  said  to  me  afterwards  I  hope  that  I 
have  done  a  little  good.  So  ended  my  appearance 
as  Balaam  on  the  '  Emergency '  platform.  The 
report  of  my  speech  in  to-day's  Times  is  condensed 
beyond  recognition,  though  I  gave  them  my  notes. 
Aweel. 


4o8  Sii"  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

Ja7iuary  i()th,   1905. 

I  am  just  off  by  train  to  London  for  deputa- 
tion to  Brodrick.  The  India  Office  proposes  to 
establish  a  School  of  Forestry  at  Oxford  ;  whereas 
we  want  it  to  be  at  Cambridge.  Hitherto,  it  has 
been  at  the  Indian  Engineering  College.  Deputa- 
tion no  good  but  right  thing  to  do.  Day  lost — 
that's  all.  When  I  come  back  I  shall  have  tea  and 
work  from  7  to  9 Yesterday  X.  wrote  apologe- 
tically to  say  that  he  was  coming  out  with  an 
anti-Greek  letter  in  next  Cambridge  Review,  and 
asking  me  to  dine  at  St  John's  as  a  sort  of  propitia- 
tory offering.  Declined  the  dinner  while  re-assur- 
ing him  as  to  my  unaltered  sentiments  of  regard. 
Horace  Darwin  called  yesterday;  he  wanted  me  to 
come  to  a  Free  Trade  Meeting  on  the  27th  when 
Goschen  is  to  speak  with  Arthur  Elliot  in  chair. 
Told  him  frankly  I  should  not  object,  only  I  had  to 
consult  feelings  on  other  side.  Didn't  want  to  rile 
them  just  now.  He  quite  saw  it.  This  week  will 
be  very  busy.  Three  meetings  with  speeches  here, 
— viz.  Library  Appeal,  Church  Defence,  and  address 
to  Mayor.  Also  an  afternoon  in  London  at  Aca- 
demy. I  can  hardly  get  two  consecutive  hours  to 
myself  except  on  Sundays. 

I  enclose  a  letter  from  '  Lady  Help.'  I  should 
say  No.  I  don't  want  a  Lady-parlourmaid.  She 
would  be  a  nuisance.  If  you  could  find  an  im- 
pecunious Earl  who  would  come  and  shave  me 
every  morning  for  a  modest  remuneration — that 
would  be  different." 


1905]  University  Carlton  Club  409 

To  HIS  Wife. 

"Springfield, 

January  227id,   1905. 

Such  a  nice  letter  has  come  from  Miss  Pen- 
rose thanking  me  for  the  Greek  verses  in  memory  of 
her  father.  They  are  for  the  tablet  to  be  set  up  in 
the  Penrose  Memorial  Library  attached  to  the  School 

at  Athens What  a  day  I  have  had!  one  piece 

of  work  after  another.  In  the  evening  I  went  to 
preside  over  a  meeting  of  undergraduates  at  the 
Carlton  Club  which  they  are  refounding  on  a  new 
basis.  It  was  well  for  them  to  have  an  experienced 
chairman,  for  they  were  helpless  as  to  procedure, 
and  it  was  rather  funny.  I  managed  to  keep  them 
to  the  successive  points  by  taking  votes  by  show  of 
hands  ;  and  we  finished  in  about  an  hour  and  a 
quarter,  when  they  gave  me  a  cordial  vote  of  thanks. 
The  young  man  who  got  the  thing  up,  a  nice  under- 
graduate of  Trinity,  was  going  to  be  President  of 
the  new  club,  and  seemed  to  have  settled  the  whole 
constitution  off  his  own  bat  or  along  with  a  few 
cronies.  The  other  young  men  modestly  asked 
questions,  but  he  was  equal  to  them  all,  and  the 
oligarchy  (or  autocracy)  simply  had  everything  its 
own  way.      It  was  charming. 

Give  your  niece  my  love  and  tell  her  that  the 
postal  symbol  which  she  placed  on  her  valued  epistle 
was  Helvetian,  or,  as  the  herd  says,  Swiss.  It  is  not 
recognised  in  the  Alpes  Maritimes  ;  and  the  minion 
of  a  tyrannical  government,  the  postman,  made  the 


4IO  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

parlourmaid  pay  five  pence  for  that  letter.  It  was 
ridiculously  cheap  at  the  price  ;  but  I  mention  it 
because,  when  you  come  back,  my  financial  position 
may  be  deemed  disappointing  ;  and  I  wish  all  my 
outlays  to  be  recorded." 

"  Springfield, 

January  2Zth,   1905. 

I  have  just  come  back  from  the  Mayor  meeting 
at  St  John's.  This  is  Mayor's  eightieth  birth- 
day, and  we  met  to  present  him  with  a  Latin 
address,  numerously  signed.  Sandys  moved  that  I 
take  the  chair.  About  seventy  or  eighty  people 
were  present, — scholars.  Then  I  spoke  for  about 
six  or  seven  minutes,  and  the  Master  of  Trinity 
followed.  After  that,  I  read  the  Latin  address, 
and  presented  it  to  Mayor.  Then  came  the  really 
interesting  part.  The  fine  old  man  got  up,  and 
began  with  a  speech  in  Latin,  after  which  he  passed 
into  English.  It  was  characteristic  of  his  non- 
egotism  that  he  seemed  to  forget  the  occasion,  and 
launched  out  into  a  discursive  speech  on  all  his 
favourite  hobbles  in  scholarship.  Illustrated  with  a 
wealth  of  learning.  His  memory  is  still  prodigious. 
As  to  vigour  and  spirit,  he  might  be  forty.  There 
was  one  quaint  circumstance.  The  gallery  at 
St  John's  can  be  lighted  only  by  candles,  and  the 
only  candles  near  us  were  on  the  reporters'  table. 
Every  now  and  then  Mayor  asked  for  a  light  to 
read  his  notes,  and  I  had  to  take  the  massive 
candelabrum  which  stood  behind  me  on  the  reporters' 


1905]         Professor  Mayors  80th  Bu^thday  411 

table,  and  place  it  on  another  table  in  front  of  us. 
It  seemed  as  if  Mayor  might  go  on  for  ever,  but 
it  was  all  interesting  and  characteristic.  He  must 
have  spoken  for  at  least  forty  minutes.  Then  there 
were  votes  of  thanks,  etc.,  and  we  got  away  at  5.45, 
having  been  there  since  4. 

It  was  a  memorable  meeting,  and  it  was  a  real 
pleasure  to  see  how  genuine  the  reverence  for 
Mayor's  character  is,  and  how  warm  the  personal 
regard  for  him, — not  to  speak  of  the  admiration  for 
his  wide  and  deep  learning. — This  is  the  last  of  my 
speeches  for  the  present.  I  have  had  a  series  of 
them  since  my  return." 

On  February  25th,  the  Cambridge  University 
Amateur  Dramatic  Club  celebrated  its  jubilee  by 
giving  a  dinner  at  the  Guildhall.  Sir  Frank  Burnand, 
its  founder,  was  the  guest  of  the  evening,  and  among 
the  older  members  present  were  many  distinguished 
men,  one  of  whom,  Mr  J.  W.  Lowther,  now  Speaker, 
took  the  chair.  J  ebb  proposed  the  toast  of  ''Actors 
past  and  present,"  and  wrote  the  Epilogue  recited  at 
the  end  of  the  evening.    Some  extracts  from  it  follow : 

"  Stay  yet  a  moment,  friends  ;    dissolve  not  yet 
The  charm  which  dreams  of  other  days  beget : 
One  moment  more,  beneath  that  gentle  pow'r, 
Indulge  the  genius  of  the  place  and  hour ! 

Yes,  fifty  years  have  fled,  since  Drama's  reign, 
Once  known  in  storied  hall  and  stately  fane, 
Once  linked  with  solemn  revels  of  the  gown. 
Rose  to  new  life  in  Granta's  ancient  town  : 
Drama  returned, — less  classic  than  of  yore, 
"Child  of  the  time,  and  modern  to  the  core 


412  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

Lo,  we  salute  our  founder  on  the  scene 
Where  still  the  laurels  of  his  youth  are  green, 
And  bid  BuRNAND  recall  that  happy  thought 
By  which  the  A.D.C.  to  birth  was  brought ! 

'^  ^  %  %  'ifc  ^ 

O  for  the  skill  to  trace  from  page  to  page, 
Through  years  gone  by,  the  annals  of  our  stage; 
To  hail  those  sprightly  authors  of  our  choice 
In  whom  the  lighter  Muse  has  found  a  voice. 
»  *  «  «  «  « 

But  who  shall  render  justice  to  that  line 
Of  actors  whom  our  chronicles  enshrine? — 
Our  favourites  of  the  old  time  and  the  new, 
Some  with  us  still,  some  pass'd  beyond  our  view, — 
Whose  varied  gifts,  embracing  all  the  spheres 
Betwixt  the  springs  of  laughter  and  of  tears. 
Gained  on  our  stage  those  plaudits,  doubly  sweet. 
Where  joy  in  art  and  joy  of  friendship  meet. 
Whether  in  greater  parts  they  bore  the  stress, 
Or  helped  with  care  and  spirit  in  the  less. 
Who  would  choose  names  from  such  a  brilliant  roll? 
We  bring  our  grateful  tribute  to  the  whole. 

O  friends  and  guests!  To-morrow's  cold  grey  light 
Will  spare,  perchance,  some  vision  of  to-night, 
Some  vestige  of  those  hours  which  gathered  here 
Comrades  well-tried  in  many  a  vanished  year. 
Drawn  once  again  within  that  magic  ring 
Where  breathe  the  memories  of  the  golden  spring. 
****** 

O  may  one  loyal  aim,  through  times  to  be. 
Still  knit  the  brethren  of  the  A.D.C, 
Humour  with  pathos  mingle,  grace  with  fire, 
Bid  ease  with  force,  and  wit  with  sense  conspire! 
Hail  to  our  founder,  ere  the  curtain  fall; 
Thanks  to  our  Chairman,  and  good-night  to  all ! " 


1 905 J  The  Order  of  Merit  413 

We  went  up  to  town  as  was  our  custom  for  the 
three  months  after  Easter.  On  June  22nd  we  were 
preparing  to  go  out  to  dinner  when  a  letter  came 
bearing  outward  signs  of  its  contents.  Sir  Richard 
on  entering  the  drawing-room  saw  it,  and  had  just 
time  to  grasp  its  contents  when  his  wife's  step  was 
heard  on  the  stairs.  *'  Hullo  !  "  he  called  out,  "they 
are  going  to  give  me  the  Order  of  Merit.  Lord 
Knollys  says  that  he  is  commanded  by  the  King  to 
inform  me  that  on  the  occasion  of  his  Majesty's 
official  birthday  he  has  much  satisfaction  in  con- 
ferring it  upon  me,  'in  recognition  of  the  great 
services  you  have  rendered  to  literature.'  "  This 
was  an  honour  which  he  valued  most  highly.  Part 
of  his  pleasure  in  it  was  the  surprise — no  whisper 
had  reached  him  of  any  such  intention.  It  dropped 
down  like  a  good  gift  from  the  gods.  He  liked 
its  coming  direct  from  the  King,  and  as  he  never 
discovered  who  had  first  moved  in  the  matter,  he 
was  entitled  to  indulge  his  fancy.  The  next  day  on 
meeting  Mr  John  Morley,  he  said,  *'  I  think  I  am 
right  in  believing  I  am  indebted  to  your  good 
offices."  ''  No,"  said  Mr  Morley,  *'  I  admit  that  the 
King  consulted  me,  but  it  was  his  Majesty  who  men- 
tioned your  name  to  me,  not  I  to  him." 

The  Order,  which  was  instituted  in  1902,  has 
I  believe  now  only  sixteen  members.  Lord  Reay,  in 
his  address  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  British 
Academy  on  July  5,  alluded 

"  in  particular  to  the  honour  conferred  on  Sir  Richard 
Jebb   of  the   Order   of    Merit.      To    Professor   Jebb   the 


414  ►^^^  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

Academy  was  deeply  indebted  for  the  services  he  rendered 
in  its  formation,  and  the  encouragement  he  afforded  in 
face  of  prophecies  of  failure.  The  Academy  was  itself 
honoured  in  this  recognition  of  Sir  R.  Jebb's  services  to 
letters." 

Early  in  July  there  came  a  delightful  letter  from 
Professor  Michaelis,  of  Strassburg,  acknowledging 
Sir  Richard's  congratulations  on  his  70th  birthday. 
J  ebb  had  drafted  a  Latin  address  which  was  sent  to 
Herr  Michaelis  from  the  Hellenic  Society  and 
formally  acknowledged  in   Latin  to  that  body. 


"  Strassburg, 

July  6th,  1905. 


Dear  Sir  Richard, 


I  have  just  despatched  to  Mr  Macmillan  my 
reply  to  the  splendid  address  the  Society  has  honoured 
me  with,  and  I  trust  he  will  give  you  notice  of  it ;  now 
I  come  to  thank  you  personally  for  your  kind  letter  of 
June  20th  containing  your  personal  congratulations.  I  feel 
always  extremely  satisfied  seeing  that  my  old  relations 
with  England  are  not  entirely  gone.  It  is  so  long  I  have 
not  been  in  England ;  a  new  generation  is  now  living 
and  studying  there  ;  I  feel  to  be  a  stranger  in  a  country 
with  which  once  I  was  so  closely  connected.  If  your 
address  gives  me  the  impression  of  being  not  entirely 
forgotten  beyond  the  Channel,  I  know  very  well  to  whom 
I  owe  that  feeling,  and  I  am  the  more  obliged  to  you 
for  having  seized  this  occasion  of  reminding  me  of  those 
old  associations  with  England." 


1905]  Defeat  of  the  Government  415 

An  event  long  expected  happened  at  last  in  the 
House  of  Commons  at  midnight  on  the  21st.  The 
Government  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  four  : — > 
Ayes  200,  Noes  196. 

71?  HIS  Wife. 

"The  Athenaeum, 

July  21st,  1905. 

I  was  in  the  fateful  division  last  night,  I  am 

glad  to  say : — to  have  missed  that  would  have  been 
serious.  Our  whip  yesterday  morning  warned  us 
expressly  about  the  evening.  Before  dinner  the 
house  wore  a  deserted  aspect  on  our  side  ;  indeed 
the  Irish  had  it  almost  to  themselves.  There  was 
no  symptom  of  their  wishing  to  divide,  but,  as  Red- 
mond had  moved  a  reduction  of  Walter  Long's  salary 
(which  was  the  peg  on  which  the  whole  debate  hung), 
it  was  obvious  that  a  division  was  probable  at  1 2,  if 
not  earlier.  There  was  really  no  excuse  whatever 
for  the  absence  of  about  1 50  of  our  party,  especially 
after  the  urgent  appeal  made  on  Tuesday  at  the 
Foreign  Office  by  Balfour,  who  dwelt  precisely  on 
this  very  danger — that  of  some  casual  defeat  on 
a  minor  issue. 

At  12  to-day  the  House  met  in  a  state  of  ex- 
pectancy. The  Opposition  declined  to  challenge 
a  division  as  we  were  present  in  full  strength,  people 
having  been  whipped  by  telegram.  We  got  away  in 
half-an-hour ! 

The  question  is  now,  what  will  Balfour  say  on 
Monday  ? 


41 6  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

Three  courses  are  possible : 

(i)     To  resign  and  dissolve  now. 

(2)  To  ignore  the  accident  and  submit  the  vote 
for  the  Irish  Secretary's  salary  again  to  the  House — 
there  are  plenty  of  precedents  for  such  a  course — 
finish  the  session,  and  dissolve  this  aiUumn. 

(3)  Ditto,  but  do  not  dissolve  till  next  year. 
This  third  course  is  that  which  the  majority  of  the 

Unionist  party  seems  to  favour.  But  Cripps  favours 
number  (2),  and  he  may  be  taken  as  a  typical  Cham- 
berlainite.  At  any  rate  there  is  a  strong  feeling 
against  (i). 

Most  people  seem  to  think  that  there  will  now  be 
no  Redistribution  Bill  next  year.  But  I  do  not  quite 
see  why.  The  defeat  yesterday  was  really  a  piece  of 
carelessness  (inexcusable,  no  doubt)  ;  it  does  not 
mean  that  the  party  is  less  ready  to  support  the 
Government." 

^''July  22ndj   1905. 

I  duly  attended  the  British  Museum  Meeting 

in  Cromwell  Road  this  morning.  John  Morley  told 
me  that  he  believed  the  Government  were  still  un- 
decided : — he  had  met  some  Cabinet  Ministers  at 
dinner  the  night  before,  after  the  Cabinet.  But 
I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  what  the  Times  says 
this  morning  is  true,  and  that  they  have  decided  not 
to  resign  now.  Indeed  my  whip  for  Monday  says 
there  will  be  a  division  early  on  that  afternoon. 
This  can  only  mean  that  the  Government  will  pro- 
pose to  rescind  the  vote  of  Thursday  night,  by  which 


1905]  Probable  Date  of  DissohUion  417 

^100  was  cut  off  the  vote  for  the  Irish  Land  Com- 
mission, 

What  I  wonder  is  whether  the  Times  is  also  right 
in  saying  that  Balfour  will  not  give  any  indication  of 
the  date  of  the  dissolution.  John  Morley  remarked 
to  me  that  the  Government  could  not  now  face 
Parliament  next  session  with  a  big  Bill  like  Redis- 
tribution, and  would  probably  dissolve  in  January. 
But,  if  they  get  over  the  accident  of  Thursday  night 
without  resigning  or  dissolving,  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  should  not  go  on  as  if  the  accident  had  not 
occurred." 


;.  M.  27 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

VISIT   TO   SOUTH   AFRICA.      LAST   ILLNESS. 
1905. 

Every  spare  moment  through  the  winter  was 
devoted  to  his  edition  of  BacchyHdes.  The  book 
had  been  long  in  hand,  and  he  feh  bound  to  finish 
it  before  saiHng  for  South  Africa.  The  British 
Association  was  to  meet  this  year  at  Capetown,  and 
he  was  going  out  to  preside  over  the  education 
section.  By  the  end  of  May  the  book  was  ready 
for  publication.  He  then  turned  to  his  next  task, 
which  was  the  writing  of  an  address  to  be  given  at 
the  opening  of  his  section  on  the  i6th  of  August. 
This  was  soon  finished  and  the  manuscript  was 
packed  away,  not  to  be  unfolded  again  until  the 
Association  had  landed  at  Cape  Colony.  The  last 
fortnight  before  sailing  he  gave  to  the  thorough 
sifting  of  all  the  papers  and  manuscripts  in  his  study, 
almost  as  if  his  spirit  had  received  the  message — 
''set  thy  house  in  order,"  and  as  if  he  had  a  pre- 
sentiment that  this  was  the  last  opportunity.  Every 
paper  was  labelled,  dated,  and  arranged  in  the  drawer 
assigned  to  it,  with  the  extraordinary  neatness  and 
method  so  characteristic  of  him. 


1905]  At  Sea  419 

The  British  Association  sailed  for  South  Africa 
on  the  29th  of  July.  Sir  Richard's  first  letter  to  his 
wife  was  written  from  the  ship  while  still  in  harbour. 

"The  Saxon, 

July  2gth,  1905. 

Journey  prosperous  so  far.  Luggage  all  in  cabin. 
Cabin  satisfactory,  but  not  so  palatial  as  fancy  painted. 
Provost  ahead  of  me"  [the  cabin  was  shared  with 
Dr  Traill,  the  Provost  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin]. 
**  Lots  of  nice  people  on  board :  lunched  beside 
Freshfield:  Lord  Rosse  opposite:  every  one  friendly 
and  cordial :  weather  fine.  Only  six  places  for 
writing  letters  here.     People  stand  looking  on  till 

one  has  done Therefore  excuse  haste.     We  sail 

between  four  and  five." 

''At  Sea, 

August  1st,  1905. 

All  has  gone  well  so  far.  We  have  had  wonderful 
weather — sea  smooth,  sky  bright,  atmosphere  clear. 

I   am  called  by  a  steward  at  6.30  a.m.,  who 

brings  me  a  cup  of  tea  and  a  biscuit.  Then  I  don 
that  delightful  dressing  gown  (it  was  wise  of  you  to 
advise  my  bringing  it)  and  go  forth  in  quest  of  a 
bath.  There  are  many  baths,  but  most  of  them  at 
some  distance  from  number  12. 

To-morrow  early  we  shall  be  at  Madeira, 

where  we  have  about  five  hours.  It  is  proposed  that 
we  should  go  ashore,  breakfast  on  top  of  a  hill, — 
and  shoot  down  2000  feet  m  six  minutes  on  a  sort 

27 — 2 


420  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

of   tray  piloted  by   Portuguese  attendants.      After 

Madeira  we  do  not  stop  before  the  Cape I  feel 

that  this  life  on  board,  the  weather  being  so  glorious, 
is  most  healthful.  The  delight  of  a  bath  in  tepid 
sea-water  at  6.30  a.m.,  is  indescribable;  and  then 
suck  air.  The  only  defect  in  the  arrangements  is 
the  scantiness  of  space  for  letter  writing  in  this 
writing  room.  I  had  to  wait  a  long  time  this  morning, 
though  I  was  here  at  7.30,  to  get  this  place.  Forsyth, 
who  always  finds  out  everything,  says  that  there  is 
a  writing  table  locked  up  against  the  wall  in  every 
cabin,  with  an  ink-pot.  I  am  going  to  investigate. 
Ink  is  the  one  thing  needful. 

Yesterday  two  whales  are  said  to  have  been  seen, 

but  this  I  take  on  faith I  finish  up  on  this  Saxon 

sheet  to  show  the  style  of  the  stationery"  [very  flam- 
boyant :  a  blue  flag  crossed  with  orange  diagonals, 
and  large  letters  for  Line  and  ship]  ''and  to  give  some 
idea  of  the  self-denial  represented  by  the  first  two 
sheets  of  my  letter."  [He  had  been  provided  with 
reams  of  thin  writing  paper.]  'Tt  is  a  triumph  for 
you  to  have  developed  in  me  that  consistent  economy 
by  which  I  am  now  distinguished.  But  it  will  have 
to  be  considered  in  future  letters (Foreign  en- 
velope too  squalid — I  cannot  do  it)." 

The  voyage  remained  pleasant  to  the  end. 
Lectures  were  often  given  in  the  morning  for  those 
who  wished  to  improve  their  minds,  while  physical 
development  was  promoted  by  the  ship's  "sports," 
which  he  described  as  very  spirited  and  amusing. 
"To-night  there  is  to  be  a  fancy  ball.     It  occurred 


1905]  Arrival  at  Capetown  421 

to  me,  remembering  Alma  Tadema's  picture  of  some 
years  ago,  that  robed  in  my  dressing-gown  I  might 
appear  as  'Caracalla  coming  from  the  bath,'  but  as 
even  with  a  label  the  allusion  might  not  have  been 
seized,  I  shall  content  myself  with  personating  a 
spectator." 

The  Association  reached  Capetown  on  the  15th  of 
August.  The  Governor  of  Cape  Colony,  Sir  Walter 
Hely  Hutchinson,  sent  an  aide-de-camp  on  board  to 
meet  his  guests — Lord  Rosse,  his  son,  and  Sir  Richard 
J  ebb — and  very  soon  they  were  comfortably  installed 
at  Government  House.  The  small  luggage  was 
forthcoming,  but  after  its  habit  Sir  Richard's  port- 
manteau went  astray,  and  its  owner  was  very  anxious. 
'*  Rushed  off  to  meeting  of  my  Committee,  after 
luncheon,  and  came  back  to  find  trunk  arrived — 
oh  joy!  I  have  a  splendid  large  room  with  a  big 
open  verandah  and  arm  chairs,  where  I  indulged  in 
a  cigar  to  celebrate  its  arrival." 

"Government  House, 

Saturday,  August  i()th. 

I  have  not  had  a  moment  to  myself  since  I  arrived 
on  Tuesday  morning,  and  am  now  writing  against 
time  in  the  few  minutes  left  before  going  on  board 
ship  to  sail  for  Durban  in  Natal.  All  has  gone  well. 
My  address  extremely  well  received.  No  time  to 
describe  drives,  parties,  etc.  I  was  one  of  four 
Englishmen  who  received  Honorary  Degrees  from 
the  Cape  University  on  Thursday.... The  Governor's 


42  2  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

kindness  and  hospitality  have  been  simply  boundless; 
never  had  I  a  more  genial  or  perfect  host  than 
Sir  W.  Hely  Hutchinson.  I  had  a  delightful  motor 
drive  of  three  hours  with  him  to-day." 

"  BuLAWAYO,  Rhodesia,  September  11th. 

We  are  on  the  point  of  starting  for  the  Victoria 
Falls  at  Zambesi.  On  Thursday  we  return  from 
the  Falls  and  go  on  to  Beira  on  the  East  Coast, 
from  which  place  we  sail  on  September  17  for  home. 
There  is  no  time  to  describe.  I  am  well  and 
have  been  so  all  through.  All  has  gone  smoothly. 
My  address^  at  Johannesburg  was  a  real  success. 
So  large  was  the  number  who  wished  to  hear  it  that 
we  had  to  move  from  the  room  assigned  to  us  to  a 
large  hall  in  the  town,  where  I  had  an  audience  of 
six  or  seven  hundred.  The  stay  with  the  Selbornes 
was  very  pleasant.  Will  tell  you  everything  when  I 
get  home.  It  has  all  been  pleasant  and  most  in- 
teresting— but  the  pace!!  It  has  also  been  very 
tiring ;  no  rest  from  travelling  and  sightseeing  ; 
It  would  have  killed  you." 

Mrs  John  Hopkinson,  who  was  very  kind  to 
him  during  the  whole  trip,  and  very  thoughtful  of 
his  comfort,  writes  to  me  : — 

^  "Professor  Jebb's  address  constitutes  one  of  the  most  striking 
addresses  ever  made  on  the  subject  of  education.     Those  who 

heard  it have  expressed  the  conviction  that  its  delivery  alone 

would  have  justified  the  meeting  of  the  Education  Section  at 
Johannesburg."  British  Association,  South  Africa,  by  Principal 
H.  S.  Hele  Shaw. 


^9^b]  Illness  on  Return  to  England  423 

"  In  the  records  of  my  diary  everywhere  stands  out  the 
inspiring,  kindest  presence  of  Sir  Richard  Jebb.  As  I  left 
the  Saxon,  the  remark,  *  I  shall  read  my  Address  on  Edu- 
cation on  Tuesday  at  10  a.m.,  Section  L  ;  perhaps  you  will 
come,'  made  me  keep  that  hour  clear,  in  all  the  hurly-burly 
of  the  Cape  Town  days.  Our  small  band  assembled  on 
that  morning  to  have  the  greatest  treat  of  the  journey — 
that  luminous  inspiring  address,  which  to  South  Africa 
was  priceless.  And  the  little  band  were  faithful  apostles, 
for  so  much  was  said  by  each  one  of  the  beauty  and  charm 
of  thought  and  diction  that,  as  you  know,  there  was  a 
glorious  repetition  at  Johannesburg  to  which  hundreds 
thronged.  And  later  again  I  have  a  little  picture  of  our 
coming  out  of  the  sunny  little  graveyard  on  the  summit  of 
Wagon  Hill  at  Ladysmith.  Sir  Richard  turned  as  we  passed 
by  and  said,  *  Look — thirteen  young  heroes  under  these 
fair  white  crosses — all  under  twenty-six.  They  died  for 
England  on  that  morning,  January  6th,  1900.'  And  then  he 
read  the  following  touching  inscription  :  '  Tell  England, 
ye  who  pass  this  monument,  that  we,  who  died  serving  her, 
rest  here  content.' " 


Those  members  of  the  Association,  who  returned 
by  the  east  coast,  were  delayed  at  Suez  by  obstruc- 
tions in  the  Canal  and  only  reached  England  on  the 
19th  of  October.  Sir  Richard  was  ill  when  he  came 
home.  What  we  thought  to  be  the  effect  of  sunburn, 
the  unusually  bright  eyes  and  flushed  face,  must  have 
meant  fever  even  then.  He  was  more  silent  than 
was  his  custom,  and  talk  seemed  an  effort.  ""  I  will 
tell  you  everything  when  I  have  more  time "  he 
would  say,  when  asked  questions  about  South  Africa: 
*'we  will  read  my  notes  together  in  the  evenings." 


424  Si7'  Richm^d  Jebb  [1905 

But  no  evening  came  when  he  was  not  too  tired 
with  the  day's  work  for  consecutive  talk.  He  was 
urged  to  see  a  doctor,  but  persisted  in  his  belief  that 
nothing  ailed  him  except  dyspepsia  and  the  lassitude 
natural  after  so  much  nervous  strain.  He  spoke  at 
the  Mansion  House  for  the  South  African  Education 
Fund  on  Monday  the  13th  of  November,  attended 
all  the  usual  committees,  and  gave  the  usual  lectures 
that  week.  Returning  from  a  lecture  on  Friday  he 
was  seized  with  a  severe  chill  followed  later  by  high 
fever.  I  think  that  he  was  glad  to  give  up  and  go 
to  bed — that  even  his  strong  endurance  had  reached 
breaking-point.  He  never  saw  his  study  again. 
The  illness  grew  steadily  worse ;  there  was  no 
delirium,  his  mind  remaining  perfectly  clear  and 
conscious  to  the  very  end,  nor  was  there  positive 
pain,  though  great  discomfort  was  caused  by  the 
high  fever  and  the  pressure  of  a  large  internal 
abscess.  He  never  complained,  he  hardly  spoke 
at  all  in  the  three  weeks  after  he  took  to  his  bed ; 
and  on  the  afternoon  of  December  9  he  died  as 
peacefully  as  a  child  falls  asleep. 


"  Farewell :  the  voice  that  called  the  Theban  King, 

This  night,  rich  dowered  soul,  hath  called  on  thee : 
Thou  through  the  unknown  ways  art  travelling 

To  some  fair  life  of  ampler  lore  to  be. 
There  what  high  shades  shall  greet  thee !      Chiefest  He, 

Whose  song  through  thy  fit  spirit  flowed  like  wine. 
Borne  from  the  Mount  that  by  the  stoned  sea 

Lifts  to  the  light  Athene's  maiden-shrined" 

^  By  Mr  Ernest  Myers,  December  9th,  1905. 


1905]  Death  and  Burial  425 

Sir  Richard  Jebb  was  buried  in  St  Giles'  Ceme- 
tery on  the  13th  of  December.  The  funeral  cortege 
met  in  Trinity  College  at  2.30  p.m.,  and  the  first  part 
of  the  service  was  held  in  the  chapel.  The  pall- 
bearers were  Lord  Reay,  Lord  Battersea,  Sir  William 
Anson,  Sir  John  Gorst,  Mr  Augustine  Birrell,  the 
Provost  of  King's  College,  Mr  S.  H.  Butcher  and 
Mr  Aldis  Wright.  The  officiating  clergy  were  the 
Master  of  Trinity,  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  the  Head- 
master of  Charterhouse,  the  two  Deans  and  the 
Precentor  of  Trinity.  It  was  a  most  touching 
moment  in  the  ceremony  when,  after  the  service  in 
chapel,  his  body  passed  for  the  last  time  through  the 
Great  Gate  of  Trinity.  A  pause  was  made,  while 
the  choir  sang  the  Nunc  Dimittis  and  the  Master 
and  Fellows  ranged  on  each  side  of  the  long  gate- 
way seemed  to  bid  a  last  goodbye  from  the  great 
College  to  her  son. 

The  Headmaster  of  Charterhouse  wrote  : 

"Everything — the  historic  courts,  the  quiet  December 
greys,  the  long  ranks  of  mourners  so  representative  of 
England's  choicest  intellectual  hopes  and  aims,  the  simple 
pageantry  of  academic  gowns,  the  collegiate  chant  and 
anthem,  the  dignity,  the  restraint,  the  reverence  for  the 
dead — all  seemed  as  it  should  be." 


426  Sir  Richard  J  ebb  [1905 

The  College  has  placed  a  brass  tablet  to  his 
memory  in  the  ante-chapel,  with  this  inscription 
written  by  the  Master,   Dr  Butler  : 

RICARDO   CLAVERHOUSE   JEBB 

EQ.  AUR.,  CM.,  LITT.D. 

HUlUS  COLLEGII  SOCIO  OLIM   TUTORI 

LINGUAE  GRAECAE  PER  XVI  ANNOS  PROFESSORI   REGIO 

ACADEMIAE  SUFFRAGIIS  IN   SEN.   BRIT.  QUATER   ELECTO 

LITTERARUM   ET  HUMANITATIS  ORNAMENTO  ET  VINDICI 

SOPHOCLIS  SUI   INTERPRET!   EXQUISITISSIMO 

IN  CURIA  ET  CONTIONIBUS  ELOQUENTI 

AD  VARIA  VITAE  MUNERA 

VEL  ACADEMICA  VEL  CIVILIA   UNICE  IDONEO 

HANG  TABULAM   DICAVIT  COLLEGIUM 

CARITATIS  DESIDERII  ADMIRATIONIS  TESTIMONIUM 

NAT.  A.D.  VI  KAL.  SEPT.  A.S.  MDCCCXLI.  OB.  A.D.  Ill  ID.  DEC.  A.S.  MCMV. 


THE  SCHOLAR  AND  CRITIC 


BY 
A.   W.   VERRALL 


THE   SCHOLAR  AND   CRITIC. 


It  is  thought  desirable  that  this  volume  should 
comprise  some  notice  of  Sir  Richard  Jebb  as  a  writer 
and  critic,  some  attempt  to  appreciate  his  specialty 
as  a  scholar.  This  I  have  been  invited  to  supply; 
and  though  I  feel  that  the  task  is,  in  its  own  nature, 
and  apart  from  personal  competence,  not  merely 
difficult  but  truly  impossible,  I  comply  without 
hesitation,  in  the  confidence  that  every  reader,  in 
proportion  to  his  own  capacity,  will  be  quick  to 
perceive  the  difficulty  and  to  make  the  necessary 
allowance. 

Sensibility,  subtlety,  delicacy,  economy,  reserve — 
these  were,  as  I  apprehend,  the  essential  qualities  of 
Jebb's  mind,  and  the  foundation  of  his  skill  in  ex- 
pression. His  central  achievement,  the  edition  of 
Sophocles,  owes  its  success,  and  the  general  recog- 
nition of  its  singular  importance,  to  the  happy 
application  of  these  qualities,  and  a  natural  harmony 
between  the  expositor  and  the  poet.  Fineness  of 
stroke,  the  dislike  of  crudity,  violence,  and  emphasis, 
an  ever-present  perception  that  what  is  most  worth 
saying  cannot — such  is  language — be  said,  but  must. 


430  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

if  it  is  to  come  with  true  force,  be  hinted  and 
suggested,  all  these  are  principles  common  to  the 
dramatist  and  the  annotator.  We  have  Sophocles 
illuminated  by  Addison. 

But  how  shall  this  method  of  art  be  itself  set 
forth  in  detail,  without  destruction  of  the  quality? 
To  exhibit  the  strokes,  to  blacken  the  touches,  is 
precisely  to  undo  the  work.  It  is  their  merit  that 
they  just,  and  only  just,  make  themselves  seen,  and 
tell,  with  true  proportion,  in  the  general  effect.  How, 
without  injury,  shall  they  be  pointed  out  ?  Those 
who  best  appreciate  a  fine  paper  from  the  Spectator 
will  least  admit  that  its  merit,  if  not  perceived,  can 
be  made  perceptible  by  stressing  the  points.  To 
stress  is  to  break  them.  An  analysis  of  such  work 
stands  in  the  dilemma  of  appearing  either  obvious 
or  exaggerated  according  to  the  perceptiveness  of 
the  reader ;  and  while  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  avoid 
both  charges,  it  is  quite  easy  to  incur  both  at  once. 

One  thing  is  clear :  that,  in  the  case  of  Jebb,  no 
method  of  enumeration,  no  mere  catalogue  of  works, 
however  ample  in  description,  would  bring  us  any 
nearer  to  the  heart  of  the  matter.  It  would  be 
certainly  ineffective  and  probably  uninteresting.  So 
at  least  I  think,  and  accordingly  I  shall  not  proceed 
in  this  way.  A  descriptive  list  would  indeed  display 
his  industry,  his  ample  range  of  interests  and  infor- 
mation. But  these  qualities,  however  meritorious, 
are  not  distinctive.  My  purpose  is  to  disengage,  if 
possible,  the  radical  virtues,  which  make  the  edition 
of  Sophocles  so  comfortable  and  so  fortifying  to  the 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  431 

literary  taste.  For  this  purpose  the  *  Sophocles ' 
itself,  with  perhaps  some  illustration  from  the 
'  Bacchylides/  is  material  more  than  sufficient.  We 
shall  have  enough  with  one  or  two  plays. 

I  select  first  the  PhilocteteSy  because  I  have  my- 
self heard  Jebb  express,  or,  to  speak  more  exactly, 
come  near  to  accepting,  the  opinion  which  he  cites 
in  an  early  essay  on  ^  The  Genius  of  Sophocles,'  that 
this  play  is  the  poet's  masterpiece.  I  add  the 
Trachiniae,  because  on  the  contrary  it  is  most  liable 
to  objection,  and  offers  most  matter  for  debate.  From 
these  three  books,  the  Philocfetes,  the  Trachiniae, 
and  the  edition  of  Bacchylides,  the  whole  case  may 
be  demonstrated,  so  far  as  it  admits  of  demonstra- 
tion ;  and  I  shall  hardly  go  beyond  them.  But,  as 
the  author's  own  compositions  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
especially  in  Greek,  illustrate  his  mind  from  a 
different  side,  I  shall  add  some  criticism  upon  the 
very  remarkable  collection,  of  which,  since  his  death, 
we  have  had  a  second  and  somewhat  enlarged  edition. 
Premising  then,  once  more,  that  to  expound  the 
specialty  of  Jebb  is  a  paradoxical  task,  in  which 
the  utmost  measure  of  success  will  be  to  prompt 
the  better  reflexions  of  the  reader,  we  will  make  first 
some  observations  upon  his  edition  of  the  Philoctetes. 

None  will  deny  that  the  book  is,  to  an  extra- 
ordinary degree,  comfortable  to  the  literary  taste. 
We  never  feel  a  jar.  Though  the  whole  is  filled 
with  debate,  though  at  every  step  the  path  must  be 
found  between  masses  of  controversy,  and  hedged 
against  actual  or  probable  errors,   though   the  ex- 


432  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

positor  luxuriates  in  distinctions,  and  is,  if  anything, 
only  too  anxious  to  leave  no  opening  unguarded,  yet 
throughout  there  is  a  certain  serenity,  which  leaves 
us  always,  after  discussion,  in  a  mood  not  unfit  for 
applying  the  result  to  the  enjoyment  of  harmonious 
art.  Nor  is  this  serenity,  this  smoothness,  attained 
at  the  expense  of  decision  and  definiteness  in  the 
view.  Almost  never  are  we  left  without  the  help  of 
a  positive  opinion  ;  in  the  facing  of  doubts  there  is 
often  the  extreme  of  hardihood.  Yet  hardly  ever 
are  we  sensible  of  a  prick  or  an  edge.  The  im- 
portance of  this  negative  quality,  and  the  difficulty 
of  attaining  it  in  the  conditions,  those  will  best  know 
who  have  ever  attempted  any  similar  work  ;  but 
every  one  feels  the  effect,  and  is  more  or  less 
consciously  grateful.  And  if  we  seek  the  cause,  the 
chief  contributory  seems  to  be  an  ever  sensitive 
delicacy,  a  reserve  and  economy  in  expression. 
Nothing  is  obtruded.  The  greater  the  import  of  a 
proposition,  the  stronger  the  emotion  which  Jebb 
desires  to  convey,  the  more  severely  will  he  abstain 
from  thrusting  it  upon  us,  the  more  will  he  strive  to 
secure  that,  in  the  last  resort,  the  student  himself 
shall  take  the  thing,  and  shall  not  have  it  put  into 
his  hands. 

Let  me  try  to  show  what  I  mean  by  an  instance 
vital,  in  fact  and  in  the  view  of  Jebb,  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  Philoctetes.  This  tragedy  turns  upon 
a  prolonged  agony  of  physical  pain,  which  has 
extended  over  many  years  and  is  forced  upon  our 
consciousness,  as  spectators,  by  horrible  paroxysms. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  433 

exhibited  with  unflinching  reaHty  upon  the  stage. 
To  bring  such  a  theme  within  the  Hmits  of  absolute 
aesthetic  satisfaction,  to  compensate  the  hideous  and 
revolting  side  of  it,  was  a  thing  immensely  difficult, 
though  desirable,  as  an  artistic  triumph,  in  proportion 
to  the  difficulty.  The  torment  of  Philoctetes,  the 
ten  years  of  lonely  and  terrible  suffering,  is  just  one 
of  those  possibilities  in  life,  which  turn  imagination 
to  darkness,  and  have  seemed,  as  Sophocles  him- 
self points  out^  to  justify  the  conception  of  a  Hell. 
In  the  presence  of  such  a  thing,  the  facile  assumption 
of  a  providential  purpose  in  the  suffering,  some  large 
design,  external  to  the  sufferer,  to  which  the  agony 
is  alleged  to  contribute,  does  not  content,  will  never 
content,  the  emotional  demand  of  average  humanity 
when  it  is  thoroughly  alive  to  the  facts  I  Not  Troy 
nor  this  whole  world,  it  seems,  could  properly  pay  an 
innocent  Philoctetes  for  tortures  which  no  explana- 
tion can  prove  to  have  been  really  necessary  to  a 
good  end.  Without  some  outlook  beyond  this  life, 
a  Philoctetes,  painted  as  Sophocles  paints  him,  is  a 
figure  beyond  the  limits  of  aesthetic  harmony.  So 
at  least  Sophocles  would  seem  to  have  thought  ; 
for,  as  a  background  and  relief  to  the  picture,  he  has 
painted,  with  softer  touches,  the  Hellenic  symbol  of 
immortal  hope,  the  figure  of  Heracles,  triumphantly 
raised  from  his  pyre  upon  Mount  Oeta  to  the  bliss 
of  Heaven.  The  actual  appearance  of  this  deity  at 
the   close  is  only   the   consummation   of  a  process, 

1  V.  680. 

^  See  vv.  191  ff.,  1325  ff.,  and  the  sequel  in  each  case. 

J.  M.  28 


434  ^^'^  Richard  J  ebb 

persistent  throughout  the  drama,  by  which  our 
attention  is  constantly  directed  to  him  and  to  all 
that  he  represented.  The  association  of  ideas  is 
natural,  for  Philoctetes  was  a  native  of  the  land 
from  which  Heracles  ascended,  and  had  himself 
kindled  the  pyre  of  triumph.  But  the  skill  with 
which  Sophocles  has  used  the  association,  the 
delicate  and  unobtrusive  tact  by  which  the  thought 
of  an  infinite  compensation  is  insinuated  without  un- 
warrantable emphasis,  is  undoubtedly  one  principal 
factor  in  the  tragic  achievement. 

Now  the  Greek  audience  of  Sophocles  were 
properly  prepared  for  this  artistic  operation.  The 
religious  or  legendary  data  were  native  to  them, 
and  could  be  revived  in  memory  by  a  touch  ;  the 
solemn  scenery,  amid  which  the  ascending  hero 
passed  to  his  reward,  was  familiar  to  the  minds,  if  not 
the  eyes,  of  them  all.  But  the  modern  reader  will 
come  to  the  play,  more  probably  than  not,  without 
any  such  natural  preparation — unable  therefore,  with- 
out aid,  to  respond  to  Sophocles  in  a  matter  of 
essential  moment.  Here  then  is  an  opportunity  and 
a  duty  for  the  commentator.  But  there  is  also  a 
difficulty. 

To  perceive  the  duty  was  perhaps  not  hard,  or 
not  specially  characteristic  of  J  ebb.  How  clearly  he 
perceived  it,  how  strongly,  as  poet  sympathizing 
with  poet,  he  felt  the  significance  of  the  Heraclean 
symbolism  to  the  scheme  of  Sophocles,  is  visible 
throughout,  nowhere  perhaps  better  than  when, 
using  boldly  the  requirements  of  a  defective  text, 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  435 

he  fills  up,  with  happy  touch,  the  last  verse  of  the 
principal  Chorus — ''where,  above  Oeta's  heights, 
the  lord  of  the  brazen  shield^  drew  near  to  the  gods, 
amid  the  splendour  of  the  lightnings  [of  his  sire]  " — 

TTkddei  irarpo^  Oeico  irvpl  Tra/Ac^a?;?,  Otra?  virkp  6)(6ojv^. 

The  word  Trarpo?,  'of  his  sire',  is  the  editor's  substi- 
tute for  an  unmetrical  and  unintelligible  Trdcn.  It 
may  or  may  not  be  what  Sophocles  wrote  ;  but  the 
allusion  to  Zeus,  the  hero's  divine  parent,  completes 
the  religious  thought,  and  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  intent  of  the  passage  and  its  bearing  upon 
the  play. 

However,  in  all  this,  in  seeing  the  opportunity 
and  duty  of  the  commentator  to  bring  out,  for  the 
aid  of  a  modern  reader,  the  Heraclean  element  in  the 
story,  there  is  perhaps,  as  we  said,  nothing  above 
common  apprehension  and  due  fidelity,  nothing 
peculiar  to  Jebb.  But  what  does  appear  proper  to 
J  ebb,  what  distinguishes  his  treatment,  is  his  manner 
of  meeting  not  only  the  duty  but  the  difficulty.  For 
the  Heraclean  background  in  the  Philoctetes,  how- 
ever important,  is  after  all  only  a  background.  The 
legend  of  the  ascension,  with  its  hint  of  immortal 
hope,  is  but  touched  in.  Its  bearing  upon  the  effect 
of  the  piece,  however  apparent  to  critical  reflexion, 
is  never  emphasized,  or  even  made  explicit.  And 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  state  of  religious 

^  Heracles. 
'  V,  726. 

28—2 


43  6  Si^  Richard  J  ebb 

belief  In  the  age  of  Sophocles,  and  with  the  relation 
of  his  art  to  that  belief,  will,  I  am  sure,  feel  and 
admit,  that  we  should  distort  and  injure  the 
Sophoclean  balance,  we  should  misrepresent  him, 
if  we  converted  the  consolatory  suggestion  into 
anything  more  explicit  than  it  is  in  the  text.  Here 
then  is  the  difficulty  for  the  expositor,  how  to  make 
perceptible,  to  unprepared  minds,  what,  if  he  would 
be  faithful  to  his  author,  he  must  not  emphasize,  or 
even  expressly  assert. 

J  ebb's  Introduction  to  the  play  opens  thus,  the 
whole,  as  I  need  hardly  say,  being  printed  in  one 
type  :— 

On  the  eastern  coast  of  Greece,  just  north  of  Thermo- 
pylae, lies  a  region  which  in  ancient  times  was  called  Malis, 

*  the  sheep  land.'  This  was  the  country  of  Philoctetes, — the 
home  to  which,  in  the  play  of  Sophocles,  his  thoughts  are 
constantly  turning.  //  will  be  well  to  form  some  idea  of  its 
chief  features  and  associations. 

Pindus,  the  spine  of  northern  Greece,  terminates  at  the 
south  in  Typhrestus,  a  great  pyramidal  height,  from  which 
two  mountain-ranges  branch  out  towards  the  eastern  sea. 
One  of  these  is  Othrys,  which  skirts  the  southern  border  of 
Thessaly;  the  other,  south  of  it,  is  Oeta,  which,  like  Malis, 
takes  its  name  from  its  pastures.  The  deep  and  broad 
depression  between  them  is  the  fertile  valley  of  the 
Spercheius  (the  'hurrying'  or  *  vehement') — which  rises  at 
the  foot  of  Typhrestus,  and  flows  into  the  Malian  Gulf... 
Precipitous  cliffs  are  thrown  forward  from  this  part  of 
the  Oetaean  range These    cliffs  were  called  of  old  the 

*  Trachinian  Rocks.'  Trachis,  *  the  city  of  the  crags,'  stood 
on  a  rocky  spur  beneath  them,  a  little  north  of  the  point 
where    they   are   cleft   by  the   magnificent   gorge   of  the 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  437 

Asopus, — that  steep  ravine  by  which  Hydarnes  led  his 
Persians  up  through  the  mozmtaifi  oak-zuoods,  on  the  night 

before  he  surprised  Leonidas Just  opposite  the  entrance  of 

the  Gulf,  the  bold  north-west  promontory  of  Euboea,  once 
called  Cape  Caeneum,  runs  out  towards  the  mainland. 
There  was  a  peculiar  fitness  in  the  phrase  of  Sophocles, 
when  he  described  this  district,  with  its  varied  scenery,  as 
*the  haunt  of  Malian  Nymphs^'  those  beings  of  the  forest 
and  the  river,  of  the  hills  and  the  sea. 

It  was  in  this  region  that  legend  placed  the  last  deeds  of 
Heracles,  and  his  death,  or  rather  his  passage  from  earth  to 
Olympus.  After  taking  Oechalia  in  Euboea,  he  was  sacri- 
ficing on  Cape  Caeneum  when  the  fatal  robe  did  its  work. 
He  was  carried  to  his  home  in  Trachis ;  and  then  he  com- 
manded that  he  should  be  borne  to  the  top  of  Mount  Oeta, 
sacred  to  Zeus,  and  burnt  alive.  He  was  obeyed  ;  as  the 
flames  arose  on  the  mountain,  they  were  answered  from 
heaven  by  the  blaze  of  lightning  and  the  roll  of  thunder ; 
and  by  that  sign  his  companions  knew  that  the  spirit  of 
the  great  warrior  had  been  welcomed  to  the  home  of  his 
immortal  father.  Somewhere  in  the  wilds  of  those  lonely 
summits  tradition  showed  the  sacred  spot  known  as  'the 
Pyre';  arid  once,  at  least,  in  later  days  a  Roman  Consid^ 
turning  aside  from  a  victorious  progress,  went  tip  to  visit  the 
solemfi  place  where  the  most  Roman  of  Greek  heroes  had 
received  the  supreme  reward  of  fortitude'^. 

Nov^  any  one  can  see  that  this  is  pleasant,  easy 
reading.  Any  student  of  English  v^ill  be  av^are, 
more  or  less,  that  it  has  a  style  of  extreme  rarity,  a 
style  of  the  Addisonian  class,  which,  by  the  severest 
economy,  by  delicacy  of  management,  attains  the 
effect,  without  the  cumber,  of  wealth.     It  is  all  alive 

^  e/.  725  [near  the  end  of  the  principal  Chorus,  above  quoted]. 
2  Livy,  36.  30. 


43^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

with  poetry  and  feeling,  intense  in  proportion  to  the 
reticence.  A  professional  writer  might  further 
suspect,  what  was  certainly  true  of  Jebb,  as  it  was 
generally  of  Addison,  that  the  ease  of  composition 
was  not  only  apparent,  but  real ;  and  that,  the 
material  once  mastered  and  the  view  chosen,  these 
liquid  sentences,  with  all  their  eddies  and  flashes  of 
suggestion,  flowed  fast  from  the  pen.  The  labour 
was  done  before,  in  a  long  and  brooding  preparation 
of  years  rather  than  hours. 

But  what  is  not  so  readily  apparent,  what  may 
perhaps  without  offence  be  indicated,  is  that  by  this 
method  and  style,  and  only  by  this,  could  be  solved 
the  problem  offered  by  the  Philoctetes  to  the  modern 
expositor, — how  to  suggest  (as  Sophocles  does),  with- 
out saying  (since  Sophocles  would  not),  that  the 
vision  of  Mount  Oeta,  seen  at  intervals  in  the 
distance  of  his  picture,  stands  for  a  symbol  of  the 
common  hope,  and  is,  in  this  relation,  vitally  sig- 
nificant. What  we  get  from  the  editor,  in  the  way 
of  preparation,  is  exactly  what  to  the  audience  of 
Sophocles  was  given  by  native  circumstance — the 
chance,  that  is  to  say,  of  comprehending  this  aspect 
of  the  play,  if  and  so  far  as  we  have  an  eye  for  it. 
By  emphasis,  by  weight  of  assertion,  the  chance  of 
comprehension  might,  no  doubt,  be  converted  into  a 
certainty,  but  the  effect  would  no  longer  be  the 
Sophoclean  effect.  To  rub  a  delicate  fruit  is  a  sure, 
but  not  a  good  way  of  showing  that  it  had  a  bloom. 
And  for  this  same  reason,  I  shall  here  leave  Jebb's 
exordium  to  the  appreciation  of  the  reader. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  439 

In  the  Introduction  to  the  Trachiniae,  we  might 
cite,  for  the  same  merit,  the  pages  on  the  character  of 
Deianira\  They  deserve  the  best  praise  which  the 
case  admits  ;  they  speak  not  intolerably  about  things 
which,  were  it  possible,  should  be  expounded  by 
silence  ;  they  suggest  this  to  the  student,  and  no- 
thing more  can  be  done  for  him.  But  I  prefer  to 
take  a  different  example,  different  and  yet  radically 
similar,  because  it  depends  for  its  effect  upon  the 
same  habit  of  economy  and  reticence. 

The  text  of  Sophocles,  from  his  habit  of  passing 
lightly,  of  hinting  and  not  stressing  his  point,  is 
peculiarly  exposed  to  the  hunter  of  interpolations. 
Nothing  is  easier  than  to  find  verses  or  couplets, 
which  can  be  pulled  away  without  any  resistance  per- 
ceptible to  the  common  finger.  In  the  last  century 
this  game  was  played  wnth  such  perseverance,  that 
almost  any  extensive  passage  had  been  by  some  one 
somewhere  adorned  with  a  bracket.  To  Jebb  the 
whole  business  seemed,  as  it  is,  fallacious  and  dull. 
His  commentary,  especially  the  small  print  of  the 
apparatus  criticus,  is  dotted  with  remarks  like  this^: 
"  These  two  verses  are  rejected  by  (So-and-so)  with 
(Somebody's)  approval,  who  pronounces  the  second 
of  them  'quite  unworthy  of  an  intelligent  poet'." 
And  below,  in  the  explanatory  note,  will  be  half-a- 
dozen  words  of  conclusive  interpretation.  Now  the 
Trachiniae,  for  reasons  obvious  to  those  acquainted 
with  its  style,  presents  to  excisers  a  specially  accom- 

^  pp.  xxxi  ff. 
'  Fhiioct  13. 


440  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

modating  field.  It  was  observed  by  Jebb  that,  in 
this  play,  the  total  of  their  spoils  would  amount  to 
something  near  one-tenth  of  the  text ;  and  he  had 
the  happy  thought  to  exhibit  this  fact  by  way  of  a 
warning^  One  '  clear  case '  of  interpolation  he 
acknowledges,  and  one  probable;  references  to  all 
the  rest,  which  had  been  alleged,  he  subjoins  in  a 
portentous  block.  His  feelings  break  out  on  this 
occasion  in  plain  sarcasm, — a  tone  almost  prohibited 
in  his  writing,  and  impressive  in  proportion  : 

Besides  these  verses,  many  others — not  fewer  than  about 
1 20  in  all — have  been  suspected  or  rejected  by  various 
commentators ;    often,  apparently,  on  the  general  ground 

that  anything  is  suspicious  which  is  not  indispensable 

It  is  to  be  regretted  when  a  habit  of  mind  such  as  might 
be  fostered  by  the  habitual  composition  of  telegrams  is 
applied  to  the  textual  criticism  of  poetry — or,  indeed,  of 
prose.  Yet  it  is  right  that  students  should  have  notice  as 
to  what  verses  of  the  play  have  been  suspected  or  con- 
demned by  scholars  of  mark.  I  cannot  vouch  for  the 
completeness  of  the  following  *  black  list/  but  I  believe 
that  it  is  nearly  complete. 

But  what  is  here  characteristic  of  Jebb,  is  not 
the  sarcasm.  It  is  the  suppression  of  the  intended 
inference,  and  the  turn  of  the  sentence  Yet  it  is 
right.,.,  by  which  that  inference  seems  to  be  rather 
deprecated  than  enforced.  Jebb's  meaning  here,  his 
personal  opinion,  undoubtedly  is,  that  the  catalogue 
is  a  reductio  ad  absurdtim  of  the  method  which  has 
furnished  the  materials,  and  that  it  almost  disproves 

^   Track.  Introd.  p.  lii. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  441 

every  item.  Most  writers  would  have  said  so  plainly; 
and  that  way  would  have  manifest  advantages.  But 
the  cautious  and  suggestive  understatement,  pre- 
ferred by  J  ebb,  is  the  way  which  should  be  preferred 
by  an  Attic  wit,  by  a  writer  naturally  fitted  to  under- 
stand the  linguistic  art  of  Athens,  and,  above  all,  of 
Sophocles. 

And  now,  with  these  two  preparatory  examples 
in  mind,  let  us  see  the  commentator  directly  at 
work  upon  a  critical  passage.  The  speech,  in  which 
Philoctetes  describes  his  sufferings  after  and  since  he 
was  left  alone  in  the  misery  of  his  maimed  condition, 
is  a  cornerstone  of  the  play,  and  a  touchstone  of 
sympathetic  interpretation.  We  will  take  from  it  the 
piece,  which  Jebb  renders  thus^ : — 

So  time  went  on  for  me,  season  by  season ;  and,  alone 
in  this  narrow  house,  I  was  fain  to  meet  each  want  by  mine 
own  service.  For  hunger's  needs  this  bow  provided,  bring- 
ing down  the  winged  doves  ;  and,  whatever  my  string-sped 
shaft  might  strike,  I,  hapless  one,  would  crawl  to  it  myself, 
trailing  my  wretched  foot  just  so  far ;  or  if,  again,  water 
had  to  be  fetched, — or  if  (when  the  frost  was  out,  perchance, 
as  oft  in  winter)  a  bit  of  fire-wood  had  to  be  broken, — I 
would  creep  forth,  poor  wretch,  and  manage  it.  Then  fire 
would  be  lacking ;  but  by  rubbing  stone  on  stone  I  would 
at  last  draw  forth  the  hidden  spark  ;  and  this  it  is  that 
keeps  life  in  me  from  day  to  day.  Indeed,  a  roof  over  my 
head,  and  fire  therewith,  gives  all  that  I  want — save  release 
from  my  disease. 

6  yAv  yji6vo%  St)   8t(x   y^povov  irpov^aive  /xoi, 
KaSei  TL  ySata   TjjS*  viro   aTeyrj  ^jlovov 
hiaKoveia-Bai'    yaarpi  ixkv  ra  cnjfJL(l)opa 

"■  Philoci.  285. 


442  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

To^ov  rdS'   i^rjvpLCTKe,   rag  VTronTdpovs 
/3dkXov  TreXetas*    Trpos  Se  tovO\   o  jjlol  /3dkoL 
vevpoaTrahrj*;  drpaKTO<;,   avros   ap  raXa? 

€lXv6fJb7]V,     SvCTTTJl'OV    i^ekKOJV    TToStt 

7r/)09  TOVT    dv    el  t    eSet  tl  /cat  ttotov  Xa^eiv, 
KaC  TTOv  irdyov  -^vOePTO^;,    oTa  ^et/iart, 
^v\ov  TL   Opavcrai,   ravT    dv  i^ipTTCov  rdkas 
ifjurj^apcjix-qv'    elra  TTvp  av  ov  iraprji/, 
dX)C  iv  ireTpoLcri  Trirpov  iKTpificoif  /xdXi9 
€(f>rjp*  dcjyavTov  <^a)9,   o   /cat   (Tco^ei  fx    det. 
OLKOvixevrj  yap   ovv  crreyy]   7Tvpo<;  /xera 
TrdvT    €KTTopit,eL  ttKtjv  to  jJirj   vocrelv  e/xe. 

Now,  about  the  many  small  points  in  which  this 
passage,  with  all  its  simplicity,  has,  by  lapse  of  time 
and  other  causes,  become  open  to  some  doubt  upon 
the  exact  sense,  we  need  not  here  say  anything, 
except  that  Jebb  seems  to  leave  none  untouched, 
and  is,  if  anything,  only  too  full.  But  when  ex- 
planation is  done,  there  remains  the  vital  matter  for 
the  student.  When  he  understands  the  passage,  is 
he  kindled  by  its  passion,  and  soothed  by  its  dignity? 
If  not,  Sophocles  can  do  nothing  for  him,  and  his 
time  is  wasted.  Yet  the  negative  chance,  the  chance 
that  full  understanding  may  leave  in  the  mind  a 
perfect  blindness  to  what  is  here  essentially  valuable, 
is  not  at  all  unlikely  ;  as  appears  from  the  fact,  that 
a  very  acute  observer  and  reasoner,  deeply  read  in 
Sophocles  and  in  Greek  generally,  proposed  to  im- 
prove the  composition  by  eliminating  the  verse 
/cat  TTOV  irdyov  ^6evTO<^,    ota  ^et/xaTt\ 


Writing  ^vXov  re  in  the  next  verse. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  443 

The  one  thing,  then,  of  ultimate  importance  to  us  as 
students  is  to  make  such  a  conjecture  as  this  im- 
possible to  us, — to  make  us  capable  of  perceiving  that 
iTojyov  ■)(yQkv7o%  is  just  one  of  those  stars  of  speech, 
by  which  the  simple  tale  is  lighted  up,  and  without 
which  it  would  not  be  Sophocles.  But  this  again  is 
the  sort  of  thing  which  will  not  bear  plain  saying, 
not  at  all  events  through  the  medium  of  a  book. 
My  reader,  I  imagine,  is  ill-pleased  when  he  reads 
it  here,  perhaps  even,  because  he  reads  it,  incredulous. 
Such  are  the  straits,  which  too  often  make  commen- 
tary impotent.     Now  let  us  hear  J  ebb  : — 

iraYov  x^^^'vTos :  cp.  Trachiuiae  853  ick-)(yTai  voao^,  'hath 
spread  abroad '  (through  his  frame).  Attius,  Prometheus 
fr.  I  profusus  gelus.  Psalm  cxlvii.  16 :  *  He  giveth  snow 
like  wool :  he  scattereth  the  hoar-frost  Hke  ashes.  He 
casteth  forth  his  ice  Hke  morsels.' —  ...  — Nauck  would 
delete  this  verse,  because  it  is  unreasonable  that  the  hero 
should  delay  providing  himself  with  firewood  until  the  frost 
has  set  in. — |vXov  n.  Lemnos  is  now  almost  devoid  of  wood, 
save  for  a  few  plane-trees  in  the  water-courses,  and  a  little 
undergrowth. 

One  is  ashamed  to  expound  the  art  of  this,  which 
would  normally  be  read,  and  should  be  read,  without 
arrest  and  almost  without  notice.  But  every  touch 
tells  :  the  Biblical  illustration — a  thing  rare  in  J  ebb, 
saved,  like  all  powerful  instruments,  for  a  fit  place  ; 
the  bit  of  irony  ;  and  above  all,  the  last  paragraph, 
which  itself  is  poetry,  and,  like  all  poetry,  is  beyond 
analysis.  The  sum  is  this  :  a  reader  of  the  note  has 
the  best  chance,  that  any  one  can  help  him  to,  of 


444  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb 

seeing  why  and  how  the  passage  of  Sophocles  is 
lovely.  If,  with  this  note,  he  does  not  see  it,  he 
never  would.  And  what  more  could  one  say  for  a 
commentary  } 

At  the  end  of  our  citation  from  the  text  occurs 
one  of  those  linguistic  subtleties,  those  minute,  but 
pregnant,  deviations  from  common  form,  in  which  all 
Athenians  delighted,  Sophocles  not  less  than  any, 
and  which,  in  the  state  of  our  textual  tradition, 
became  matter  of  doubt  and  dispute  : — 

A  roof  over  my  head,  and  fire  therewith,  gives  all  that  I 
want — save  release  from  my  disease. 

OLKovfjiepr}  yap   ovj/  cTTeyrj   TTvpos  fxira 
irdvT    eKTTopit^eL  ttXtjv  to  fxrj  vocreiv  ifxe. 

That  the  purpose  of  this  emphasis  on  the  pronoun 
{ifjL€,  not  fjie)  is  not,  to  the  modern  mind,  evident, 
appears  from  a  row  of  conjectural  substitutes.  J  ebb 
writes  : 

€>€  has  been  suspected.  But  it  serves  to  qualify  the 
general  sentiment  by  a  reference  to  his  special  circum- 
stances : — '  shelter  and  fire  give  all  that  a  man  needs — 
except,  in  mj/  case,  health.' 

Whether  we  accept  this  or  not  (I  do  so  myself  with- 
out hesitation),  it  is  manifestly  the  remark  of  a  very 
clear  and  penetrating  mind,  a  mind  peculiarly  fitted 
to  follow  the  flexions  of  Attic  speech. 

Certainty  in  such  matters  is  often  not  now  to  be 
had  ;  and  the  point  is  inevitably  reached  where  such 
an  expositor  as  Jebb,  pursuing  the  turns  of  such  a 
composer  as  Sophocles,  will  be  charged  plausibly,  if 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  445 

not  justly,  with  cutting  too  fine.  Such  a  case  is 
presented  by  the  opening  of  our  passage.  J  ebb,  it 
will  be  seen,  renders 

6  [kkv  yj)6vo%  Srj   Sta  -^povov  irpov^aive  fJuoL 

into  '  So  time  went  on  for  me,  season  by  season,'  and 
compares,  very  appropriately  at  all  events  in  respect 
of  the  matter,  these  lines  from  Enoch  Arden  : 

Thus  over  Enoch's  early-silvering  head 

The  sunny  and  rainy  seasons  came  and  went, 

Year  after  year. 

The  explanation,  by  which  this  version  is  supported, 
will  seem  to  some  '  more  elaborate  than  is  necessary^'; 
and  this  (let  us  note)  it  may  be,  even  if  nevertheless 
it  is  right.  I  venture  no  opinion,  but  will  call 
attention  in  passing  to  Jebb's  firm  and  just  defence 
of  the  verse  against  the  suspicion,  much  supported, 
of  clerical  error,  ''  The  text "  he  says  "  has  been 
boldly  altered,... to  get  rid  of  Sta  ^ovov  :  but  the 
iteration  itself  is  a  proof  of  soundness,"  This  is 
surely  true  ;  and  by  such  neat,  decisive  strokes  J  ebb 
will  constantly  limit  those  doubts  which  he  may  not 
altogether  remove. 

Indeed,  whatever  doubts  may  remain,  there  is  no 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  general  soundness,  as 
well  as  subtlety,  of  Jebb,  in  discriminating  the  shade 
of  a  given  expression  from  approximate  equivalents. 
It  is  the  most  obvious  of  his  gifts,  and  perhaps  the 

^  So  Professor  L.  Campbell,  Paralipomena  Sophoclea  (p.  203). 
He  prefers  '  Well,  after  a  time,  I  found  the  time  advancing.'  Note 
however  the  position  of  the  words  8ia  yjiovov. 


44^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

most  indispensable  to  the  exposition  of  his  favourite 
poet.  Never  does  he  sink  into  the  algebraic  method 
of  interpreting  language,  as  if  it  consisted  of  inter- 
changeable varieties,  or  forget  that,  for  the  purpose 
of  art,  no  two  expressions  can  be  absolutely  and 
indifferently  equal.  To  be  weeded  of  this  error  is 
the  benefit  most  easily  and  certainly  procurable 
from  a  course  of  Jebb.  Examples  abound,  and,  to 
represent  him  fairly,  must  be  given  in  some  fulness. 
In  making  a  selection,  I  have  not  ascertained  or 
considered,  whether  J  ebb's  view  is  original  or 
adopted — which  is  not  the  point.  I  believe  how- 
ever that  in  most  cases  the  substance  of  his  remarks 
is  his  own,  as  well  as  the  form. 

'*  Thou  must  beguile  the  mind  of  Philoctetes  by 
a  story  told  in  thy  converse  with  him,"  says  Odysseus 
to  Neoptolemus\  and  uses  an  irregular  syntax — 

xfjv^rjT/  OTTW?  XoyoLOTLv  eic/cXei//ei9  Xeycov — 

of  which  two  other  examples  (one  Sophoclean)  are 
extant.  Some  have  proposed  to  correct  the  irre- 
gularity, others,  with  more  discretion,  to  admit  it. 
Neither  way  comes  to  the  point,  which  is,  that  if,  as 
would  appear,  the  variation  commended  itself  to 
Sophocles,  it  had  presumably  some  distinction  of 
colour,  which  distinction,  Jebb  sees,  is  the  thing  to  be 
fixed.  *'  In  [all  the  three  examples]  the  construction 
is  used  by  an  elder,  or  superior,  in  giving  a  precept 
of  conduct.     The  admonitory  tone  thus  associated 

'  FM.  54. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  447 

with  the  formula  confirms  the  text."  The  basis  of 
induction  is  narrow,  and  possibly  uncertain  ;  but  this 
is  the  spirit  in  which  grammar  should  be  handled, 
and  the  only  way  of  making  it  fruitful.  And  see  in 
the  same  note,  for  a  specimen,  both  instructive  and 
amusing,  of  the  difficulties  inherent  in  a  language  so 
remote  from  us  and  so  subtle  as  Attic  Greek,  the 
discussion  of  the  word  Xiyoiv.  Of  four  interpreta- 
tions J  ebb  disallows  only  one,  though  as  usual  he  is 
decisive  in  preference,  and  seems,  as  usual,  to  be 
right. 

The  same  principle,  applied  to  a  peculiarity  not 
of  syntax  but  of  vocabulary,  is  seen  in  the  following 
case\  which  might  be  multiplied  almost  without 
limit.  Neoptolemus,  having  convinced  the  seducer 
Ulysses  of  his  determination  to  restore  what  they 
have  stolen  to  the  true  owner,  dismisses  him  thus  : 
"  Thou  hast  come  to  thy  senses  ;  and  if  thou  art 
thus  prudent  henceforth,  perchance  thou  mayst  keep 
clear  of  trouble  " — 

iaco(j)p6vr)o'a<;'    Kav  to.  \oi(f>    ovrco   (f^povrj^;, 
icrco<;  av  Ikto^  KkaviiaTOiv  e)(oi<;  noSa. 

What  shall  we  say  of  this  mixed  metaphor,  "Thou 
mayst  keep  foot  out  of  weeping"  ?  Note  it  merely 
for  an  oddity,  or  impugn  it  as  an  error V  Neither, 
if  we  would  appreciate  Sophocles. 

KXavji,aT«v  :  cp.  Ant.  93 1  rolacv  dyovo-iv  \  KXavfiaO^ 
vTrdp^ec.     The  familiar  use  of  Kkaiwv  in  threats  {ib,  754) 

1  Phil.  1259. 

*  Hartung  conjectured  Tryj/xdroiv. 


44  8  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

made  it  natural  to  use  the  substantive  as  =  '  troubles ' : 
hence  the  confusion  of  metaphor  would  not  be  felt.  For 
like  phrases  with  iroSa,  see  on  Ant.  619. 

That  is  to  say,  two  streams  of  colloquial  phraseology 
here  flow  together ;  two  metaphors,  each,  as  a  meta- 
phor, all  but  killed  by  much  use,  produce  by  fusion 
a  point  of  colour  ;  and,  where  tttj jjlcitcjv  would  have 
been  commonplace,  KXavixdrcov  gives  the  touch  of 
life.  In  the  references,  the  reader,  if  he  pleases,  can 
retrace  the  history. 

So  also  when  Sophocles  writes 

a  modern  reader  will  be  apt  to  feel,  clearly  or 
obscurely,  that  the  reduplication  of  Kevrfv,  empty,  by 
dvdpcoTTcov  8t;)(a,  withotU  men  (in  it),  is  a  mere  negli- 
gence or,  at  best,  a  technical  trick,  not  really  made 
any  more  agreeable  when  it  has  been  labelled  as 
poetical.  A  set  of  parallel  passages,  proving  that 
Greek  and  Latin  writers  not  unfrequently  did  such 
things,  does  not  help  him  at  all.  He  perhaps  knows 
that  they  did,  and  wishes  that  they  did  not,  since  he 
does  not  perceive,  if  he  were  to  speak  his  mind,  any 
better  reason  for  such  superfluity  than  the  filling  of 
the  verse.  Even  those,  who  may  see  more,  will 
often  tell  him  no  more,  because,  in  such  matters,  to 
see  is  one  thing,  but  to  say  is  quite  another,  and 
harder.     What  he  wants  will  be  this  : 

opco.     Neoptolemus,  mounting  the  rocks,  has  now  just 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  cave,     kcvi^v  is  made  more  explicit 

^  Fhil.  31. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  449 

by  avepwirwv  8£xa :  '  empty, — yes,  there  is  no  man  there.' 
Such  iteration  is  natural  when  the  mind  confirms  itself  in 
a  first  impression,  or  dwells  on  a  striking  thought ;  so  Verg. 
Aen. /\..  588  vactios  sensit  sine  remige  porttis  ('empty, — no 
rower  there');  Ai.  464  'yvfivov  ^avevra  rwv  dpiareLwv 
arep  '  (when  I  return)  ungraced, — aye,  without  the  meed  of 
valour'. 

This  is  something  more  than  an  explanation  of  the 
passage,  more  even  than  a  general  precept  about 
Greek  or  Latin.  It  is  a  light  on  the  nature  of 
language  and  the  method  of  art. 

More  important  still  is  another  application  of  the 
same  principle — that  an  irregularity  in  language 
should  signify,  and,  if  you  can  trust  your  author, 
will  signify,  some  corresponding  peculiarity  of 
thought,  some  special  colour  of  circumstance  or 
insinuation  :  I  mean,  where  the  controlling  force 
lies  behind  the  words,  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker, 
which  mind  he  would  fain  both  express  and  conceal. 
So  Philoctetes  expresses  his  confidence  in  Neopto- 
lemus,  promising  to  put  into  the  young  man's  hands 
his  fatal  and  coveted  weapon^:  *'The  bow  shall  be 
thine,  to  handle,  and  to  return  to  the  hand  that  gave 
it;  thou  shalt  be  able  to  vaunt  that... thou  alone 
hast  touched  it."  This  reads  not  quite  smoothly  in 
English,  and  more  disjointed  still  is  the  Greek  : 

TrapicTTai  ravToi   oroi  kol   Oiyydveiv 
Kol  hovTi  hovvai  Kd^enev^aaOai  ^poTcov 
dperrj^  e/cart  twz^S'   CTrti/zavcrat  jxovov. 

1  Fhil,  667. 
J.  M.  29 


45  o  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

Beyond  this  perception,  that  the  run  of  the  words  is 
odd,  and  that  the  oddness  can  be  located  in  the 
clause  Koi  hovTi  Sowat, — beyond  this  most  of  us  will 
not  go  without  help,  as  appears  by  a  string  of  pro- 
posals (with  very  good  names  to  them)  for  correcting 
the  recalcitrant  words.     Nevertheless 

These  words  are  not  only  genuine,  but  mark  a  delicate 
turn  of  phrase.  Instead  of  saying,  '  You  shall  be  allowed 
to  handle  the  bow,  on  condition  of  returning  it,'  he  says, 
'  You  shall  be  allowed  to  handle  the  bow  and  to  return  it.' 
...The  condition  which  qualifies  the  boon  is  thus  lightly 
and  courteously  hinted, — being  inserted  between  the  words 
{Oi'yydveiv,  Ka^eTrev^aaOat)  which  express  the  privileges 
conceded. 

Observations  of  this  kind,  fine,  exact,  and  satisfying, 
may  be  picked  from  almost  any  page. 

I  turn  aside  here  to  indicate,  in  the  immediate 
context  of  the  passage  last  cited,  a  case  in  which 
J  ebb  does  not,  in  my  judgment,  exhaust  his  problem, 
though  he  does  conclusively  settle  the  points  which 
he  raises.  It  is  due  to  him  to  exhibit  at  least  one 
such  case,  for,  as  a  proof  of  sound  quality,  nothing  Is 
better.  The  speech  of  Phlloctetes,  consenting  to  put 
the  bow  in  the  hand  of  Neoptolemus  (see  above), 
continues  and  concludes  In  the  mss.  thus  : 

...TcovS*   iTTixjjavaaL  [xovop* 
evepyerajp  yap   KavTOS  avT    iKT7)(TdiJi'qv. 
[ov/c  a^OofJbai  a    IScov  re   Kal  Xaficop  (jyikov 
ocTTts  yap  ev  Spav  ev  iraOcov  iTrLorTarai, 
iravTos  yivoiT    av  KTijfxaros  Kpeicrcrcov  <^iXo9.] 
NE.  ^(opols  ap  elo-o). 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  451 

Now  the  sentiment,  that  '*  whoever  knows  how  to 
render  benefit  for  benefit  must  prove  a  fi-iend  above 
price,"  has  no  point  here,  if  addressed  by  Philoctetes 
to  Neoptolemus,  who,  having  received  no  benefit, 
has  not  rendered  any.  The  text  therefore  must  be 
in  some  way  faulty.  Two  remedies  had  been  pro- 
posed :  ( I )  to  transfer  the  bracketed  verses  to 
Neoptolemus,  (2)  to  omit  them  altogether.  Upon 
this  state  of  the  question,  J  ebb  remarks,  that,  if 
the  verses  are  rejected,  then  Neoptolemus  deigns 
no  reply  to  the  gracious  and  cordial  speech  of 
Philoctetes,  including  the  offer  to  entrust  him  with 
the  bow,  beyond  the  bare  yoipoi%  av  etcrw,  "  Go  in, 
I  pray  thee,"  which  alone  is  assigned  to  him  by  the 
Mss.  He  ignores  the  offer,  that  is  to  say,  altogether. 
J  ebb  thinks  this  dramatically  intolerable,  as  surely 
it  is.  He  also  explains  correctly  what  the  verses 
mean  in  the  mouth  of  Neoptolemus  : — "  I  am  not 
sorry  that  chance  drove  me  to  Lemnos,  and  thus 
enabled  me  to  gain  your  friendship.  One  who  is 
ready  to  requite  a  benefit  (viz.,  conveyance  to 
Greece)  by  such  a  kindness  as  this  (the  promised 
loan  of  the  bow),  must  indeed  prove  to  be  a  price- 
less friend." 

So  far  I  see  no  objection.  J  ebb  has  done  here 
what,  at  the  least,  he  always  does.  He  has  cleared 
the  position ;  he  has  fixed  a  base  and  limit  of 
possible  departure.  But  has  he  proved  that  ''the 
three  verses  are  clearly  genuine "  ?  What  he  has 
shown  is,  strictly,  that,  if  Neoptolemus  does  not 
acknowledge   the  offer   of   Philoctetes    by  the    im- 

29 — 2 


452  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

pugned  verses,  then  he  must  acknowledge  it  other- 
wise. Omission  of  the  verses,  that  is  to  say,  is  not 
admissible  as  a  complete  remedy.  I  still  believe 
that  the  verses  are  spurious.  In  the  mouth  of 
Neoptolemus  (for  whom  they  were  undoubtedly 
written)  they  have  indeed  meaning,  as  Jebb  explains; 
but  they  are  (I  think)  pompous  and  inappropriate'. 
The  offer  of  Philoctetes,  to  deliver  the  bow  to 
Neoptolemus  for  a  moment,  merely  that  he  may 
'handle '  it,  may  '  touch '  it,  and  then  return  it  to  the 
owner, — surely  this  piece  of  courtesy  is  not  well 
described  as  *  a  benefit,'  a  reward  for  the  service  of 
conveying  Philoctetes  to  his  home.  And  further, 
why  should  the  offer  of  Philoctetes  be  left  unper- 
formed ?  Neoptolemus  has  asked  merely  to  have 
the  bow  in  his  hands  and  to  pay  his  respects  to  itl 
He  is  told  that  he  may.  Then  why  should  he  not  ? 
It  appears  necessary  to  the  natural  effect  of  the 
scene  that  the  thing  should  be  done,  that,  when 
Philoctetes  has  spoken,  he  should  act  upon  his  offer, 
by  delivering  the  bow,  which  Neoptolemus,  after 
expressing  his  pretended  satisfaction  by  kissing  it, 
or  such  other  reverent  gesture  as  may  be  appropriate, 
will  of  course  reverently  restore,  as  he  was  bidden, 
to  Philoctetes.  But  if  this,  or  something  like  this, 
here  passes  between  the  speech  of  Philoctetes  and 
the  ''Go  in,  I  pray  thee"  of  Neoptolemus,  there  is 

^  So  also,  as  I  understand,  Professor  Campbell  {Paralipomena 
p.  21 1) — "It  must  be  allowed  that  Neoptolemus  is  'daubing  it' 
rather  far." 

*  V.  657,  V.  660. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  453 

no  need  and  no  room  for  any  words  on  the  subject 
from  the  young  man.  Words  would  only  spoil  the 
significant  action.  We  may  thus  satisfy  the  instinct 
of  those  many  scholars  (five  are  cited  by  J  ebb)  who 
mislike  the  three  verses,  and  yet  we  shall  not  infringe 
the  requirement  of  Jebb,  that  the  offer  of  Philoctetes 
must  not  pass  without  notice.  The  verses  will  have 
been  inserted  to  fill  an  apparent  lacuna,  produced  by 
the  absence  of  stage-directions.  They  will  have 
drifted  (in  the  mss.)  from  Neoptolemus  to  Philoctetes, 
because,  as  is  natural  in  a  patchwork,  they  do  not 
really  fit  either.  But  be  this  suggestion  right  or 
wrong, — I  put  it  forward  not  at  all  for  its  own  sake, 
and  will  suppose  that  others  can  see  something  better, 
— what  I  would  point  out  is,  that  Jebb  here  closes 
decisively  some  ways  of  going  wrong,  and  places 
us,  at  all  events,  in  the  right  position  from  which  to 
move,  if  move  we  will. 

This  clearness  of  view,  with  a  keen  and  imper- 
turbable sense  for  the  less  obvious  relations  between 
words  and  thought,  fitted  him  admirably  for  the 
interpretation  of  drama.  For  a  good  example,  see 
the  exclamation  of  Neoptolemus \  when  he  forces 
himself  to  the  uncongenial  work  of  fraud  :  '  Come 
what  may,  I'll  do  it,  and  cast  off  all  shame'  (Trdcrav 
alcrxyj^W  ac^ets).  To  complain,  with  some,  that  so 
complete  a  change  of  mind  is  abrupt  and  unnatural, 
is  to  confuse  form  and  substance — an  error  only  too 
easy  for  a  commentator,  intent  for  the  moment  upon 
the  phrase  before  him.  "He  will  do  the  deed," 
'  Phil.  120. 


454  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb 

writes  J  ebb,  "  but  there  is  still  a  sense  of  oXcryyvy], 
which  it  costs  an  effort  to  shake  off.  These  are  the 
words  of  one  who  may  yet  feel  remorse."  Just  so ; 
there  is  no  more  to  be  said\ 

Often  of  course  a  trenchant  decision  would  be  a 
misrepresentation  ;  and  it  is  not  the  least  of  Jebb's 
merits,  that  his  opinion  and  arguments  are  given,  in 
such  cases,  exactly  for  what  they  are  worth.  Was 
it  possible,  in  the  Greek  of  Sophocles,  to  express 
*' Thou  art  not  departing  from  thy  sire's  example" 
by  ovh\v  e^o)  tov  (j)VT€vcravro<;  crv  ye  Spas^  ?  Could  a 
place  be  said  o-vfXfjyepeo-Oai  OvrjcrKovri,  in  the  sense 
of  being  '  fit '  to  die  in^ }  These,  and  other  such 
questions  without  number,  are  matters  of  feeling, 
which  for  decision  demand  a  native,  and  a  native 
highly  trained.  Jebb's  treatment  of  them  has  these 
constant  qualities,  that  he  determines  exactly  the 
conditions  of  choice,  reducing  to  reason  all,  to  the 
last  shade,  that  can  be  so  reduced,  and  pretending 
no  more. 

It  is  often  manifest  that  he  himself  felt,  and  not 
without  internal  justification,  much  more  assurance 
than  he  could  ground  upon  logic  ;  and  he  had  an 
enviable  power  of  implying  this  without  improper 
emphasis.      But  no  one  could  be  more  free  from  the 

^  For  the  same  reason,  unfailing  clearness,  Jebb  is  excellent 
in  the  classification  of  syntactical  forms.  See  the  notes  on  w? 
TttVT*  cTTto-Ttu  Sptofxcva  (P/ll7.  567)  and  ivrvx^iv  or  ai/  rvx^lv  (/%/'/. 
1329).  In  these,  and  hundreds  of  places,  whether  he  settles  the 
matter  or  no,  he  eliminates  confusion  with  incomparable  dexterity. 

'  Phil  904. 

»  Phil.  1085. 


The  Scholar"  and  Critic  455 

vice  of  brazening,  and  from  the  temptation  to  fortify 
a  weak  point  by  'abusing  the  adversary's  counsel.' 
His  strict  courtesy,  his  reticence  in  reticendis,  is  only 
the  more  appreciable,  because  rarely,  here  and  there, 
just  once  in  a  way,  a  little  cry  reveals  his  inner 
impatience  : — 

**  Such  as  the  time  needs,  such  am  I,"  says 
Odysseus  \  "Where  the  question  is  of  just  men  and 
good,  thou  wilt  find  no  man  more  scrupulous." 

cv  ya/3  TOLOvTcov  Set,  tolovt6<;  eljx    iyco. 

Upon  this  J  ebb  remarks,  with  his  usual  precision  : 

TotovTwv,  '  such  or  such  '  a  man, — *  any  given  kind  '  of 
person  : — euphemistic  for  BoXlcov,  or  the  like.  Such  a 
colloquial  use  of  TOLovTo<i  seems  quite  intelligible,  since  it 
could  be  interpreted  by  an  expressive  tone  of  the  voice,  or 
by  a  slight  gesture.    (Not,  '  such  as  thou  hast  described.') 

This  is  right — if  we  so  see  it ;  and  argument  can 
help  no  further.  But  what  should  be  done,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that,  in  an  important  edition,  tolovtcov 
was  changed  to  iravovpyajv,  ''where  wickedness  is 
wanted,  wicked  I  am"?  J  ebb's  practice  is  to  record 
such  things,  when  the  case  demands,  and  to  pass  on. 
But  here,  for  once,  his  tone  is  sharp  :  "  It  would 
be  grievous"  he  adds  "to  change  tolovtcjv  into 
Travovpycov."  So  it  would  ;  and  we  get  a  salutary 
shock,  a  useful  caution  against  rough  handling.  But 
such  an  effect  rewards  only  the  severest  economy  ; 
and  you  may  read  a  hundred  pages  of  J  ebb  without 
finding  anything  similar. 

1  F/u7.  1049. 


456  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

Indeed,  in  his  oreneral  treatment  of  controversial 
matter,  in  his  desire  to  exhibit,  not  only  what  ought 
now  to  be  said  upon  the  subject,  but,  if  possible,  all 
that  has  been  worthily  and  helpfully  said,  he  is  only 
too  scrupulous  and  insatiable.  His  passion  for 
completeness,  his  desire  not  to  suppress  an  aid,  are 
chief  causes  of  the  only  fault  which,  apart  from 
details,  may  be  alleged  against  the  commentary  on 
Sophocles, — that  sometimes,  not  often,  it  might  be 
shortened  without  practical  loss.  Wordy  he  never 
is;  terse  he  is  often,  to  the  despair  of  imitation;  and 
where  he  gives  more  than  the  student  of  Sophocles, 
as  such,  actually  wants,  it  is  most  commonly  because 
he  insists  on  marking  the  imperfect  contribution  of 
a  predecessor.  It  should  be  observed  that,  even  in 
these  cases,  the  presentation  of  the  development  is 
in  itself  valuable,  as  illustrating  method  and  the 
growth  of  opinion.  And  indeed,  where  such  matter 
is  given  in  an  appendix,  we  have  more  reason  to  be 
grateful  than  to  complain.  But  in  the  footnotes  it 
is  occasionally  burdensome.  I  will  give  one  example, 
not,  I  think,  uninteresting. 

The  last  decisive  moment  in  the  plot  of  the 
Philodetes,  the  final  victory  of  honesty,  is  reached 
when  Neoptolemus,  unable  to  convince  Philoctetes 
upon  the  question  of  his  voluntary  submission  to 
destiny  and  removal  to  Troy,  declares  nevertheless 
his  own  adherence  to  his  promise, —  that  he  would 
convey  the  hero,  if  he  wished,  to  his  home  in  Malis. 
''  Ne,  If  thou  wilt,  let  us  be  going. 
Ph.     O  generous  word!" 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  457 

NE.     ei  So/cei,   (jrCiyoiy^^v.       <S>I.     c3  yevvolov  elpr)KOt)<; 

^       1 

Now  in  this  verse,  and  in  those  which  follow,  the 
change  in  the  situation  and  movement  is  marked, 
after  the  artful  manner  of  Greek  tragedy,  by  a 
change  of  form,  the  substitution  of  the  long  trochaic 
metre  for  the  common  iambic.  But  this  verse,  the 
first  in  the  new  metre,  is  irregular,  because  practice 
required  that  the  centre  of  the  verse,  the  end  of 
the  fourth  foot,  should  be  marked  by  a  division 
between  words,  whereas  here  it  occurs  within  a 
single  word  (co  yevv-aiov).  The  irregularity  is  in- 
tentional and  valuable,  as  it  enforces  the  pause  at 
aret^coixev,  and  adds  strength  to  the  exclamation 
which  follows.  This  effect,  the  explanation  of  which 
was  the  work  partly  of  Porson,  partly  of  Hermann, 
had  doubtless  been/"^//  before,  though  not  technically 
comprehended,  by  many  ;  and,  for  practical  purposes, 
it  might  be  dismissed  in  a  couple  of  sentences.  If 
Jebb  s  notes  on  it,  the  critical  and  the  explanatory, 
are  (as  may  be  thought)  too  elaborate  for  the  im- 
portance of  the  matter,  the  cause  is  plainly  his  wish 
to  reward  exactly  the  deserts  of  all  concerned  in  the 
evolution  of  the  true  view,  and  particularly  to  do 
justice  to  Porson. 

And  for  once  that  he  is  too  ample,  he  is  twenty 
times  admirable  in  compression.  Take  for  a  specimen 
a  note  from  the  Trachmiae': 

aXX'   olcrSa  yikv  hr]  koX  ra  tt}?   ^ei/r)^  opcov 
TrpocrSeyfjLaTy   avTrjv  ojq  iSe^dixrjv  t^tXo)?. 

^  /y«7. 1402.  ^  V.  62^]. 


45  S  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

*'And  then  thou  hast  seen  the  greeting  given  to  the 
stranger  maiden — thou  knowest  how  I  welcomed 
her."  The  mss.  vary  between  avrrjv  and  avrijv  6\ 
Here  is  the  statement  by  which  Jebb  not  only  settles 
this  doubt,  which  has  produced  a  long  course  of 
misadventures,  but  also  illuminates  the  principles 
of  Greek  : 

I  read  avTijv  (with  A),  not  avrr'/v  0'  (with  L),  for  these 
reasons. — (i)  It  is  clear  that  avrrjv  means  merely  earn,  not 
ipsam.  We  cannot  distinguish  to.  ti]s  %kv^%  irpoo-ScYjiaTa,  as 
meaning  the  welcome  of  lole  along  zuith  the  other  captives, 
from  a  special  welcom.e  given  to  lole  personally.  (2)  avrrjVy 
although  unemphatic,  has  a  position  which  would  usually 
give  emphasis.  But  this  is  excused  by  the  fact  that  the 
whole  clause,  avTTjv  cSs  cSeganT^v  <|)£X«s,  depends  on  olcrea,  being 
merely  epexegetic  of  rd  ttjs  iiv(\%  irpoo-StYfiaTa  (instead  of  ola 
iyevero  or  the  like).  The  chief  stress  falls  on  <j>£X«s.  (3)  If, 
however,  we  had  avTtfv  e*,  then  the  sentence  would  lose  that 
compact  unity  which  justifies  the  place  of  the  pronoun. 
And  so  avTr)i>  6'  would  naturally  seem  to  mean  ipsam — 
raising  the  objection  noticed  above  (i).  The  insertion  of  9* 
may  easily  have  arisen  from  a  notion  that  the  second 
clause  required  a  link  with  the  first. 

From  the  Trackiniae,  which,  in  its  varied  and 
elaborate  style,  offers  special  opportunities  for  the 
sense  of  poetical  discrimination,  I  will  take  some 
further  specimens  of  Jebb's  characteristic  faculty, 
the  reference  of  linguistic  variety  to  the  subtleties  of 
thought  which  determine  it.  Again  and  again  he 
will  show,  at  a  stroke,  not  merely  that  a  peculiar 
phrase  is  possible,  but  why  it  is  wanted.  The 
examples  will  be  different  in  kind,  as  dealing  with 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  459 

vocabulary,  or  grammar,  or  other  matter.  But  in 
all  will  be  seen  a  like  penetration,  the  same  neat 
cutting  to  the  quick.  Be  it  remembered,  that  in  all 
or  most  of  these  cases,  the  knot,  which  we  see 
loosed,  has  been  pulled  and  tangled  to  distraction, 
though  the  solution  (Jebb  is  the  last  to  forget  this) 
may  nevertheless  be  largely  due  to  the  failures. 

"•  Let  me  hear  thy  name,"  says  Deianeira  to  lole, 
**from  thine  own  mouth.  It  is  indeed  distressing  not 
to  know  thy  name  " — 

. . .  CTret 
KoX  ^Vfi(f>opoi  TOL  firj   elSevai  ere  y    17x19  eP. 

She  is  deeply  interested  by  the  captive,  and  anxious 
to  know  her  story,  in  order  to  offer  her  formal 
sympathy.  On  fv^(^o/oa,  where  many  have  stumbled, 
Jebb  remarks,  that  the  use  of  it  here  is  a  subtlety 
of  art,  which 

depends  on  the  different  shades  of  meaning  possible  for 
the  word.  When  Deianeira  at  last  learns  all,  that  knowledge 
is  to  her  a  ^vfMcpopd  in  the  gravest  sense:  she  knows  that,  in 
lole,  she  has  received  a  Trrffiovijv  v-jroareyov  (376).  But 
here  she  is  courteously  using  ^vficpopd  in  the  milder  sense 
which  it  could  also  bear, — *  a  matter  of  deep  regret,' — 

which  sense  he  illustrates,  and  surely  stops  all 
question. 

**  Let  my  wife  but  come  to  me,"  cries  Heracles 
in  his  agony,  **and  she  shall  learn  to  proclaim  this 
message  unto  all,  that  in  my  death,  as  in  my  life,  I 
chastised  the  wicked  " — 

Kol   t,(x)v  KaKovs  ye  kol   Oavcov  iTeLcroifjirjv^, 
"■  Tr.  320.  "^  Tr.   iiii. 


460  Sir  Richard  Jebb 

The  ye,  says  Jebb,  Is  very  expressive  : 

It  means,  '  when  gtdlt  is  to  be  chastised,  I  am  strong 
even  in  weakness, — even  unto  death.' 

''  Of  course,"  w^e  say.  Yet  a  critic  of  the  first  rank 
proposed  to  write  KaKovpyov<;. 

Heracles  (to  Hyllus)  :  "Thou  must  consent  and 
help  with  a  good  grace,  as  one  who  hath  learned 
that  best  of  laws,  obedience  to  a  sire." — 

Set  a    ...    avTov  eiKaOovra  a-vjXTTpdcrcreiVy  vo^jlov 
KaWiCTTOv  i^evpoPTa,   ireidap^eiv  iraTpi^, 

The  word  i^evpovra  Is  not  what  would  occur  to  the 
ordinary  composer ;  hence  conjectures,  i^opdovvra, 
i^aipovray  and  so  on.      But 

i^evpovra  is  illustrated  by  the  words  avrov  elKaOovra. 
He  is  not  to  wait  until  this  law  has  been  brought  home  to 
his  mind  by  a  rebuke.  He  is  to  '  find  it  out '  in  the  light  of 
his  own  reason  ; 

and  it  is  shown  that,  in  fact,  evpia-K^iv  *  often  ex- 
presses the  result  of  reflection.' 

Deianeira,  In  innocent  anticipation,  describes 
Heracles,  clad  in  the  fatal  robe  of  sacrifice,  as  'newly 
radiant  at  the  altar  In  a  ^tew  garb' — 

OvTTJpa  KaLv^  Kaivov  eV  TreTrXaj/xart^. 

The  repetition  Is  a  common  idiom  for  emphasis;  but, 
adds  Jebb  with  poetic  Insight,  It  has  here  a  further 
motive,  as  pointing  to  the  unforeseen  catastrophe  : 

It  is  a  touch  of  tragic  irony.... For  BvTrjp  Kaivov  could 
mean  *  a  sacrificer  of  a  novel  kind,' — 

'   Tr.   1178.  '   Tr.  613. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  461 

which  fact,  and  the  sinister  sense  of  /caii^d?,  he 
proves  by  illustration.  Yet  it  had  been  proposed  to 
substitute  kK^ivco  kX€lv6p,  '  glorious  and  gloriously 
attired.' 

When  ''to  prate  with  the  brainsick  befits  not  a 
sane  man  "  is  expressed  in  the  form —    . 

TO  yap 
vocTovvri  Xrjpelv  avSpo<;  ov)(l  o'(o(j)povo^^, 

every  one  perceives  in  voctovptl,  the  simple  dative, 
a  departure  from  ordinary  grammar.  To  make  this 
acceptable — and  a  rain  of  conjectures  has  proved 
the  peril  of  alteration — we  must  learn  what  poetical 
purpose  it  serves,  what  is  the  shade  of  colour  by 
which  it  differs  from  tt/jo?  vocrovvra.  To  this,  the 
true  point,  J  ebb  instantly  proceeds  : 

The  dative  follows  the  analogy,  partly  of  StaXiyeaOal 
TLVi,  but  more  especially  of  (faXovec/celv  tivl,  crracnd^eLv  rcvl: 
the  notion  is  'to  hold  a  silly  controversy  with  a  madman.' 
Cp.  the  schol.  ox)  yap  (piXovei/CTjaco  Trpb^;  avrov. 

So  again,  he  will  not  let  us  suppose,  that,  in 

opm   Be  fx    epyoT/  Seivoi'  i^eipyaa-fxeur)]/^, 

the  use  of  the  accusative,  instead  of  the  common 
nominative,  is  merely  a  convenience,  which  we  have 
done  with,  when  we  have  registered  it  as  exceptional. 

The  examples  are  of  two  kinds,  (i)  Most  often  there 
is  a  contrast  of  persons  ;  £/.  65....  (2)  Sometimes,  as  here, 
...the  effect  is  merely  to  give  a  certain  objectivity :  El.  470 
iriKpav  I  hoKd  fie  irelpav  njvSe  roX/juTjcretv  ere.  ...      This    is 

'  Tr.  434. 
'  Tr.   706. 


462  Sir  Richard  Jedd 

especially  fitting  when  the  speaker  is  in  an  evil  plight,  and 
means  that  he  can  see  himself  as  others  see  him. 

Nothing  seems  more  obvious.  Yet  nothing  is 
more  difificult  to  sustain  than  this  sure  touch  upon 
the  nerves  of  the  language,  or  more  rare  than  the 
power  to  be  at  once  so  minute  in  distinction  and 
so  simple  in  expressing  it. 

Again  and  again  it  enables  Jebb  to  see,  and  to 
bring  out,  points  of  value  in  the  phrasing,  which 
would  escape  the  majority  even  of  practised  readers. 
Deianeira  was  told  (she  says)  by  the  Centaur,  to 
keep  his  supposed  love-charm  in  a  secret  place, 
always  remote  from  fire  and  sun,  *' until  I  should 
apply  it,  newly  spread,  where  I  wished  " — 

€0)9  viv  dpTi^pLCTTov  ay3/xdcratju,t  7rou\ 

Whereupon  Jebb  : 

irov:  neither  Nessus  (575)  nor  she  herself  had  ever 
thought  of  the  charm  being  used  on  any  one  except 
Heracles.  But,  as  she  shrank  from  naming  Eurystheus 
(35),  so,  at  this  moment,  she  shrinks  from  naming  the  man 
whom  she  loves. 

Remarks  of  this  kind,  which  abound,  are  what  I 
had  chiefly  in  view  when  I  said,  that  Sophocles  is 
here  interpreted  by  an  Addison.  It  appears,  I  hope, 
that  this  is  at  all  events  not  an  over-statement. 

We  might  prolong  the  exemplification  indefinitely, 
and  still  it  would  not  be  adequate.  Many  expositions, 
especially  upon  points  of  syntax,  however  good  in 
their  place,  cannot  fairly  be  presented  in  detachment 

^   Tr.  687. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  463 

and  under  the  present  conditions.  I  must  be  content 
to  mention,  without  citing,  the  notes  on  Trachiniae 
438,  463  (ivTaKeiTj  tS  ^tXeti^),  a  model  of  scientific 
skill  directed  by  sympathetic  Intuition,  468,  547 
(disputable,  but  in  my  opinion  right),  562  (tov 
TraTpcoop  (jToXov  :  see  particularly  the  remarks  on  the 
'dramatic  fitness'),  and  584  (equally  subtle  and  true). 
But  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  In  full  the 
note  on  Trachiniae  494  ff.  The  moment  is  a  crisis 
in  the  development  of  the  drama.  Delaneira  has 
just  formed  in  her  own  mind  the  fatal  plan,  shortly 
after  revealed,  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  her  un- 
faithful husband  by  a  charm.  She  will  send  it  by 
the  hands  of  his  own  messenger,  to  whom  she  speaks 
as  follows  : — "  But  let  us  go  into  the  house,  that  thou 
mayest  receive  my  messages;  and,  since  gifts  should 
be  meetly  recompensed  with  gifts, — that  thou  mayest 
take  these  also.  It  is  not  right  that  thou  shouldest 
go  back  with  empty  hands,  after  coming  with  such  a 
goodly  train." — 

dX.X'  etcro)   crriyq^; 
)(0)pa)iJL€V,   ot)9  Xoycov  t    hrKnoka,'^  <^ipri^, 
a  T    avTL  Scopcjv  Scopa  ■)(^pr)  irpoo-apixocraty 
Kal  ravT    ayrjs'    Kevov  yap  ov  8t/cata  ere 
yoipeiv,   7rpocrek96v0*   c5Se   orvv  ttoXXw   crroXw. 

That  the  word  irpoa-apixoo-ai  has  a  somewhat  artificial 
effect,  one  may  easily  perceive  ;  but  that  the  choice 
of  it  is  dictated  by  anything  beyond  technical  con- 
venience, I,  for  one,  should  certainly  not  have  sus- 
pected. It  would  pass,  with  ninety-nine  readers  in 
a  hundred — and  with  the  hundredth  too,  for  a  fair 


464  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

specimen  of  tragic  diction,  for  a  variation,  fairly 
appropriate,  chosen  to  mark  poetry  as  something 
different  from  prose.  Whether  this  is  all  the  effect 
that  Sophocles  intended,  or  all  that  a  native  hearer 
would  have  felt,  the  reader  must  decide  after 
perusing  this  comment : 

irpoo-ofjioo-ai,  literally  'adjust';  Le.,  'give  in  fitting  recom- 
pense/ But  Deianeira's  choice  of  the  word  has  been 
influenced  by  her  secret  thought, — already  turned  towards 
the  philtre  which  she  would  apply  to  Heracles :  cp.  687 
eo)?  vLv  apTiy^piaTov  apixoaaLfxi  irov.  And  at  the  same  time 
the  word  is  unconsciously  ominous  (cp.  767  7r/Do<77rTucro-€Tai^). 

This  is  the  first  mention  of  the  fateful  gift.  An  un- 
obtrusive significance  is  given  to  it  by  two  traits  of  ex- 
pression, (i)  ^oipa  is  drawn  into  the  relative  clause,... and 
resumed,  with  a  light  emphasis,  in  koI  ravr:  cp. Pki/.  1247^ 
(2)  A  pause  follows  the  second  foot  of  the  verse  (ayr}<;). 

It  would  be  needless  to  tell  any  one,  versed  in 
the  classics  and  their  expositors,  that  this  is  by  Jebb. 
There  are  no  such  notes,  none  exactly  such,  in  any 
commentaries  that  I  know  of,  except  his.  Such 
points  go,  for  the  most  part,  unobserved,  and,  when 
observed,  are  seldom  expounded,  because  they  are  so 
hard  of  definition.  And  it  is  true,  as  Jebb  was  well 
aware,  that  such  points  will  hardly  bear  explanation  ; 
if  they  are  not  seen,  they  must  be  partly  lost.  Hence 
the  lightness  and  suspense  of  his  touch,  a  sort  of 
colourless  language,  which  sometimes  eludes  and 
defeats  the  unwary.     But  thus  only  may  the  thing 

^  Said  of  the  poisoned  robe,  when  it  /o/ds  itself,  like  a  fitting 
garment,  to  the  flesh. 

^  Where,  as  here,  the  trait  serves  to  mark  a  dramatic  crisis. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  465 

be  done  at  all ;  and  so  often  and  so  far  as  we  appre- 
hend it,  we  get  a  lesson  beyond  price  in  the  essence 
of  literary  art. 

Of  Jebb  as  a  textual  critic,  a  manipulator  of 
readings,  this  is  not  the  place  to  speak  at  any  length. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  understood  the  principles 
thoroughly,  and  his  judgment  was  sound.  In  the 
fascinating  art  of  conjecture  he  deserves,  at  any  rate, 
what  is  perhaps  the  chief  praise  in  this  kind — that  he 
did  no  mischief.  It  will  be  hard  to  find  a  place,  in 
which  he  has  meddled  with  a  text  certainly  defen- 
sible. His  greatest  success,  I  think,  is  in  places 
properly  called  '  hopeless ',  where  evidence  fails  and 
the  way  is  open  for  free  supplement.  I  have  referred 
above^  to  the  admirable  naTpos  (for  7rao-i)  in  Phi/- 
octetes  729.  The  word  of  Sophocles,  whatever  it  was, 
can  hardly  have  been  more  illuminating  in  the  place. 
So  in  Phil.  1092,  though  no  one  can  pretend  con- 
fidence, any  more  than  Jebb  does,  that,  for  eW 
aWepos  avo),  we  ought  to  accept  TreXeiat  8'  av(o  as  the 
demonstrable  words  of  Sophocles,  we  can  neverthe- 
less say  for  the  suggestion,  that  it  would  be  absolutely 
satisfactory,  if  it  were  certified.  There  is  hardly  one 
other,  in  the  very  interesting  catalogue  supplied  by 
the  Appendix  to  the  passage,  of  which  one  would 
say  just  this,  though  in  point  of  ingenuity  some 
surpass  the  proposal  of  Jebb.  And  his  conjectures, 
whatever  their  value,  are  given  fairly  for  what  they 
are  worth  ;  he  is  not  the  dupe  of  his  own  cleverness. 
To  that  of  others  he  is,  I  think,  sometimes,  though 

'  P-  435- 
J.  M.  30 


466  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

rarely,  too  favourable.  ''  Surely,"  cries  Philoctetes 
to  his  lost  bow,  ''  Surely,  if  thou  canst  feel,  thou 
seest  with  pity  that  the  comrade  (?)  of  Heracles  is 
now  to  use  thee  nevermore  !  " 

J]  TTov  iXeivop  opa^,   ^pivas  eu  rti^a? 

€xet9>  Toif  ^  JlpaKkcLoi^ 

a6\iov  (x)hi  croL 

ovK€TL  ')(^p7)cr6fJLevov  TO  ixedvcTTepov^. 

For  a6\iov  here,  apOynov  (Erfurdt)  seemed  to  J  ebb 
'  a  certain  correction '.  I  doubt  if  he  would  have 
thought  so,  had  the  surmise  occurred  first  to  himselP. 
His  substitution  of  kaxfyrjfjia  for  XvTTT/fta  in  Tra- 
chiniae  554, 

Tj  o    e^o),   (piKaL, 
XvTTjpiov  Xco(f>r)fJLay   rrjS*  vyuv  (fypdcrco, 

''  I  will  tell  you,  friends,  the  way  by  which  I  hope 
to  find  deliverance  and  relief''  has  almost  every 
merit  and  justification  that  a  conjecture  can  have, 
and  fairly  deserves  to  be  propounded  with  the 
assurance,  'I  believe  that  Sophocles  wrote. ..'I    And 

1  Phil.    1 130. 

-  It  is  supposed  to  be  a  poetical  variation  for  ^iKov  or  ^kvov 
{friend)^  but  I  agree  with  Professor  Campbell  in  thinking  it 
strange.  I  suspect  that  the  text,  though  bold,  is  sound ;  roV 
*Hpa/cA.€iov,  the  Heraclean  (one),  means  here  'the  friend  of 
Heracles',  as  in  a  suitable  context  it  might  mean  'the  son  of 
Heracles ' ;  aOkiov  is  part  of  the  predicate.  But  the  general 
judgment  declares  the  place  corrupt. 

^  By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  certain.  Others  {e.g. 
Campbell's  voruxa)  may  well  be  right.  The  supposed  '  certainty ' 
of  a  conjectural  reading  is  generally  a  delusion,  arising  from 
imperfect  appreciation  of  possibilities. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  467 

it  is  evident  that  his  confidence  was  not  really  less 
in  the  case  of  the  phrase  (7>.   869) 

0)9  t  ajr\Sy]%  f  ^^^   crvi'oxppvcoiJidvr) 
Xcopel— 

which,  as  he  says,  cannot  be  right.  "  Surely,"  he 
continues,  "  drj67j<;  was  merely  a  corruption  of  oi{y)r)' 
6t]<;,  which  does  not  seem  to  occur,  but  which  is  as 
correct  as  evy7)9i]<;  or  TroXvyqdijs.''  He  scrupled  to 
put  it  in  the  text ;  but  in  the  Introduction  (p.  liv) 
seems  near  to  regretting  his  abstinence.  The  regret 
is  instructive,  and  the  scruple  characteristic. 

For,  like  most  men  of  acute  artistic  sensibility, 
he  had  a  strong  respect  for  convention  and  tradition, 
a  prejudice  in  favour  of  custom  for  its  own  sake\ 
Because  he  loved  and  seized  upon  the  subtlest 
departure  from  the  commonplace,  and  delighted  in 
tracing  it  to  the  obscure  motive,  for  this  very  reason 
he  disliked  a  freak.  He  would  not  readily  admit 
for  fact  a  phenomenon  altogether  without  parallel, 
and  was  perhaps  only  too  ready  to  class  the  un- 
provable with  the  impossible.  In  a  lyrical  passage 
of  the  Philoctetes'^,  the  mss.  present  us  with  lines — 

Trapov  (l)povrja'aL, 
Tov  \(povo<s  SaifJiOT/os  elkov  to   kolklov  alveiv — 

which  can  be  scanned  only  by  assuming  that  \(^ovo^ 
has  the  quantities  ^^  -^  and  that  &>  within  a  word  is 

^  He  could  not  speak  of  Euripides  without  pain  in  his  voice, 
and  seldom,  without  necessity,  spoke  at  all.  He  had  no  strong 
desire,  I  think,  to  comprehend  such  a  person. 

*  V.  1099. 

30—2 


468  Sii'-  Richard  J  ebb 

here  treated  like  an  &>  final,  being  abbreviated  before 
the  following  vowel.  Parallels,  not  adequate,  have 
been  adduced  for  this.  Jebb  disposes  of  them  justly, 
and  takes  for  granted  that,  this  done,  the  case  is  at 
an  end.  The  bare  chance  that  Sophocles  did  here 
what  strictly  he  should  not  have  done,  or  again,  the 
bare  chance  that  he  had  reasons  for  doing  it,  which, 
with  our  materials,  are  no  longer  discoverable, — in 
these  directions  Jebb  would  refuse  to  look,  rightly 
perhaps,  certainly  with  a  solid  preference  for  the 
measurable  and  the  safe. 

This  is  not  the  temper  of  the  discoverer ;  nor  is 
it  by  discoveries,  in  the  common  sense  of  the  word, 
that  Jebb  is  to  be  classed.  Original  he  was  to  a 
very  high  degree,  but  not  in  that  kind  of  originality 
which  elicits  a  shock  either  of  disapprobation  or  of 
assent.  It  is  easy  to  cite  from  him  single  remarks, 
six  words,  it  may  be,  or  a  mere  reference,  w^hich, 
otherwise  handled,  would  have  made  an  eloquent 
paragraph  or  a  striking  essay.  When  Philoctetes  is 
deprived,  apparently  for  ever,  of  his  sole  defence 
against  starvation,  turning  to  the  cave  in  w^hich  he 
has  lived  so  long  and  so  miserably,  and  is  now,  as  it 
seems,  to  die,  he  salutes  it  with  the  bitter  cry:  ''  Thou 
hollow  of  the  caverned  rock,  now  hot,  now  icy  cold, 
— so,  then,  I  am  never  to  leave  thee  "  : 

c5  KOL\a<s  Trerpas  yvakov 

OepjJLOp  /cat  7raycTci>8e9^.. 

*'  Contrast   this "    says    a    laconic    note    "  with    the 

description  by  Odysseus  " — who,  viewing  the  place 

1  FM.  1083. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  469 

(if  we  may  say  so)  like  a  tourist,  finds  it  excellent  for 
comfort  in  all  weathers!^  If  this  note,  and  a  dozen 
other  such,  scattered  over  the  whole  commentary, 
had  been  put  picturesquely  together,  they  would 
have  had  the  air  of  a  discovery  by  the  editor.  But 
a  reader,  who  does  not  miss  them,  will  like  them 
better,  and  will  profit  not  less,  because  the  discovery 
seems  to  be  made  by  himself. 

A  distaste  for  strangeness,  a  respect  for  boun- 
daries, will  be  serviceable  in  proportion  to  the 
intrinsic  value  of  established  presumptions.  The 
exposition  of  Sophocles  gave  to  Jebb  just  the  field 
which  suited  his  genius.  The  main  lines  of  the 
subject  are  well  fixed  and  rightly  fixed.  Few  fun- 
damental questions  are  open,  or  could  probably  be 
opened  with  any  advantage.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  no  degree  of  exactness,  which  Sophocles 
does  not  fairly  invite  and  reward. 

Not  that  Jebb  neglects  or  misses  the  large 
aspects.  I  have  already  observed  the  breadth  and 
fidelity  with  which,  in  the  Introduction  to  the  Phil- 
octetes,  the  main  lines  of  the  composition  are  indi- 
cated. Not  inferior,  as  a  whole,  is  the  Introduction 
to  the  Trachiniae.  I  would  refer  especially  to  the 
pages^  in  which,  by  dexterous  approaches  and  care- 
ful balance,  we  are  shown  precisely  in  what  sense 
and  for  what  reasons  the  Trachiniae,  measured  by 
the  standard  of  Sophocles,  lacks  the  roundness,  har- 
mony, and  completion,  which  are  his  characteristics, 
— what  meaning  we  must  give  to  the  phrase  *  want 
^  w.  17  fF.  *  xxxv-xlii. 


470  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

of  unity',  If  we  are  to  apply  it  at  all  to  this  play. 
This  discussion  can  neither  be  presented  here  entire 
nor  fairly  exhibited  by  extracts.  We  must  be  content 
to  signalize  a  by-stroke  of  sympathetic  delicacy. 
The  character  of  Hyllus — the  son  of  Heracles  who, 
by  his  father  s  command,  bears  him  alive  to  the  pyre, 
and  who,  obeying  a  still  harder  injunction,  takes  to 
himself  for  wife,  in  the  person  of  lole,  the  very  cause 
of  his  father's  death — is  described  in  a  paragraph 
of  disciplined  eloquence,  which  culminates  in  these 
sentences^ : 

Thus,  under  the  dark  shadow,  pierced  by  no  ray  from 
above,  which  rests  upon  the  close  of  the  drama,  this  thrice- 
tried  son  calls  the  gods  to  witness  that  his  own  will  has 
been  overruled.  With  bitter  anguish  in  his  heart,  he  sees 
his  father  abandoned,  as  men  must  deem,  by  heaven;  he  is 
no  longer  the  buoyant  youth  of  the  opening  scene,  but  a 
man  who  must  now  take  up  the  burden  of  a  great  inheri- 
tance, that  Hyllus  whom  a  grave  and  warlike  race  were  to 
honour  as  the  father  of  their  kings,  the  ancestor  of  the 
Dorian  Heracleidae. 

This  is  undoubtedly  the  colour  in  which  the 
dramatist  desired  to  present  the  legendary  relation 
of  Hyllus  and  lole  to  their  supposed  descendants  in 
the  Greek  world.  And,  like  the  Heraclean  aspect 
of  the  Philoctetes,  it  is  touched  by  the  editor  with 
firm  decision,  yet  not  over-touched.  But  to  appre- 
ciate fully  his  judgment  in  disposing  his  material, 
we  should  turn  from  this  paragraph  to  the  note  on 
the  final  injunction  of  Heracles — Trpocrdov  8a/xa/)ra, 

^  p.  xxxix. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  471 

''Take  this  woman  to  be  thy  wife\"  There  we 
learn — what,  as  matter  of  history,  is  possibly  true 
— that  the  transference  of  lole  from  Heracles  to  his 
son,  however  skilfully  it  is  handled,  was  neverthe- 
less primarily  an  expedient,  a  somewhat  hazardous 
and  embarrassing  expedient,  to  reconcile  certain  data 
of  legend  with  the  requirements  of  dramatic  inven- 
tion ;  ''it  was  rendered  indispensable  by  the  plot/'  Of 
course  it  is  not  the  intention  of  Sophocles  that  we 
should  feel  this  constraint  as  readers  of  the  play  ; 
nor  on  the  whole  do  we  feel  it ;  and  still  less  should ' 
we  feel  it  as  spectators.  With  justice,  therefore,  Jebb 
sets  the  widest  possible  interval  between  his  picture 
of  the  Sophoclean  incident,  and  his  historical  expla- 
nation of  its  origin,  and,  as  far  as  truth  permits,  duly 
protects  the  picture  against  inopportune  disturbance. 
Less  satisfactory  perhaps  are  his  remarks  on  the 
neglect,  in  the  Trachiniae,  of  the  so-called  rule  re- 
specting the  'unity  of  time'\  Much  indeed  in  this 
paragraph  is  true, — for  example,  that  "  amid  the  ex- 
citement, the  alternations  of  hope  and  fear,  which 
pervade  this  play,  the  action  hastens  forward  in  a 
manner  which  leaves  us  no  leisure  to  remark  the  feats 
of  travelling  performed  by  Hyllus  and  by  LIchas." 
Nevertheless,  the  whole  statement  seems  to  repose 
on  conceptions  which,  though  current,  are  confused 
and  confusing. 

Hyllus  goes  to  Euboea,  witnesses  the  sacrifice  there, 
and  returns  to  Trachis,  in  a  space  of  time  measured  by 
less  than  700  lines. 

'  z;.   1224.  ^  p.  xlii. 


472  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

If  that  were  all,  there  would  be  nothing  to  criticize. 
700  lines,  or  7  lines,  or  no  lines  at  all,  but  a  bare 
interval,  may,  with  perfect  propriety,  stand  for  any 
space  of  time  whatever,  provided  that  the  lapse  to 
be  supposed  is  sufficiently  and  consistently  indicated. 
Nor  in  fact  does  the  Ti^achiniae  exhibit  any  incon- 
sistency, any  internal  inconsistency,  in  the  time- 
indications  ;  and  we  learn  nothing  from  the  state- 
ment, however  familiar,  that  "in  this  play  *the  unity 
of  time  '  has  been  disregarded  with  exceptional  bold- 
ness " — for  this  formula  covers  different  meanings. 
What  Sophocles  has  here  disregarded  is  simply  the 
exact  topography  of  the  region  where  his  scene 
passes.  He  chooses,  for  the  convenience  of  his  plot, 
to  write,  throughout  and  consistently,  as  if  Cape  Cae- 
neum  were  much  nearer  to  the  territory  of  Trachis 
than  it  is, — say,  five  miles  off  instead  of  nearer 
twenty.  It  may  be  inferred  (and  there  is  nothing 
surprising  in  the  inference),  that  his  audience  and 
readers  generally  were  not  likely  (or  so  he  thought) 
to  realize  the  actual  facts  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
disturbed,  in  their  enjoyment  of  his  picture,  by  the 
geographical  names.  Such  licences,  common  in  all 
ages,  are  matter  of  practical  judgment,  not  of  artistic 
theory  ;  and  the  '  unity  of  time'  is  in  this  connexion, 
as  always  in  reference  to  Greek  literature,  a  futile 
invention.  J  ebb  is  embarrassed  here  by  conventional 
terms,  which  perhaps  he  had  not  strictly  examined. 
For  the  practical  effect  of  this  drama,  the  matter  is, 
as  he  truly  says,  "  not  a  point  of  importance."  And 
in  these  circumstances,  no  one  was  less  likely  than 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  473 

he  to  raise  a  large  problem,  which  might  not  in- 
conveniently sleep. 

Here,  with  a  profound  sense  of  inadequacy  in 
my  treatment,  I  must  quit  the  edition  of  Sophocles. 
What  I  have  offered  is  not  a  description  ;  otherwise 
it  were  idle  to  concentrate  our  attention  on  two 
plays.  My  hope  is  to  have  exhibited,  by  a  few 
examples  carefully  chosen  from  a  prescribed  space, 
the  intimate  and  essential  quality  of  the  work,  the 
touch  of  individual  genius  by  which  it  is  distinguished 
from  other  good  work  generally  similar.  As  for  the 
common  epithets  of  scholarly  praise,  you  would 
hardly  find  one,  which  might  not  warrantably  be 
bestowed  on  this  vast  monument  of  learning  and 
industry.  But  Jebb  deserved,  if  ever  any  man  did, 
the  true  reward  of  the  artist,  not  to  be  praised 
otherwise  than  with  exactness  and  propriety.  And 
though  no  eulogy  could  be  too  high  for  him,  it  is,  I 
feel,  beyond  me,  to  frame  any  which  is  not  too  gross. 

Next  among  his  works  to  the  'Sophocles',  in  per- 
manent fame  and  utility,  we  should  place,  I  suppose, 
his  edition  of  the  newly  discovered  lyrics  of  Bac- 
chylides.  Judged  indeed  merely  by  the  ordinary 
standard,  as  a  piece  of  literary  and  historical  research, 
faithfully  finished  to  the  last  detail,  this  book  is  not, 
I  consider,  at  all  inferior  to  the  '  Sophocles  '  itself. 
Rather,  perhaps,  the  number  of  problems,  the  constant 
pressure  of  uncertainty,  the  doubtful  limits  of  the  dis- 
coverable, bring  out  more  strongly  than  ever  Jebb  s 
thoroughness,  and  his  skill  in  the  management  of 
material.     But   what  is  wanting,   inevitably,   is  the 


474  ^^^  Richard  J  ebb 

charm  of  the  subject,  and  the  loving  enthusiasm  of 
the  student.  The  disinterred  pieces  of  Bacchylides 
are  a  precious  addition  to  a  miserably  defective 
chapter  in  the  history  of  literature  ;  one  or  two  of 
them  are  notable  works  of  art ;  but,  if  they  were 
modern  and  familiar,  five  pages,  instead  of  five 
hundred,  would  be  enough  to  bestow  upon  them. 
**One  does  wish,"  as  I  heard  J  ebb  say,  with  a  sigh, 
in  the  midst  of  his  labour,  ''that  the  man  were  just  a 
little  better."  Moreover,  for  practical  purposes,  the 
theme  requires  a  bolder  and  more  emphatic  dis- 
crimination than  Jebb's  conscience  and  taste  would 
permit.  For  practical  purposes,  the  reader  should 
be  sent  straight  to  Poem  xvii  ( Theseus),  which  Is  first- 
rate  work  In  a  modest  way,  then  to  xvi  ( Youths  and 
Maidens),  then  to  some  marked  passages  elsewhere; 
after  which,  he  may  go  as  he  pleases.  But  no  such 
rude  finger-posts  will  he  find  in  Jebb. 

Nevertheless,  for  the  scholar,  as  an  ordered  col- 
lection of  all  available  Information  on  the  subject,  the 
book  is  invaluable.  In  the  archaeology  of  poetry, 
in  the  traditional  colour  of  phrases  and  epithets,  Jebb 
was  always  deeply  versed  and  interested.  Specimens 
of  this  kind  appear  often  In  the  'Sophocles',  perfect 
in  precision  and  finish,  perhaps  only  too  elaborate 
for  the  literary  occasion \  And  the  'Bacchylides' 
is  everywhere  rich  In  the  like.  Moreover,  the  de- 
ficiencies of  the   tattered   ms.  give   Jebb    excellent 

'  See  for  instance  the  note  on  Biol  cVoi/^ioi  {Philoctetes  1040), 
and  on  Heracles  6  xa^'^ao-'r-t?  {ib.  728),  and  in  the  'Bacchylides', 
the  discussion  oi  y\(si^avyy]v  (Deianeira)  on  p.  473. 


The  Scholar'-  and  Critic  475 

opportunities  for  the  supplementary  invention,  the 
fine  use  of  poetic  faculty,  which,  as  we  said  above, 
was  his  happiest  exercise  in  textual  criticism. 
Whether  the  remnants  of  Ode  in  72  ff.  should 
really  be  so  completed,  as  to  make  of  the  letters 
fiakeaL  an  allusion  to  the  Greek  Cape  of  Storms — 

iir    e^Jt'os  ii^d^JLepov  a[Ti//'   1170-1 — 

Jebb  (p.  461)  is  careful  not  to  determine.  But  his 
lines  put  a  saving  touch  of  colour  into  the  passage, — 
and  Bacchylides  (one  would  say)  can  hardly  have 
done  better. 

Subtleties  in  Bacchylides,  for  the  best  of  reasons, 
Jebb  does  not  show  us.  The  strongest  points  in 
the  volume,  or  the  most  characteristic  of  the  editor, 
are  those  criticisms  in  which,  with  infinite  precaution 
against  crudeness  or  disrespect,  he  shows  not  only 
that  in  fact  'the  nightingale  of  Ceos'  is  a  singer  of 
no  great  compass — any  one  can  see  that — but  also 
just  why  and  where  the  note  fails.  Take  for  ex- 
ample a  portion  of  the  interview  in  Hades  between 
Heracles  and  the  ghost  of  Meleager^ — not  the  least 
beautiful  episode,  some  might  say  the  most  beautiful, 
in  the  extant  poems: 

**  'Tis  said  that  then,  and  then  alone,  tears  came 
to  the  eyes  of  Amphitryon's  intrepid  son,  in  pity  for 
the  ill-fated  hero's  doom ;  and  he  answered  him  with 
such  words  as  these :  It  were  best  for  mortals  that 
they  had  never  been  born,,.'' 

'  V.  155. 


476  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

^cl(t\v  aSeLcrilBoav 

'Afji(f)LTpv(x)voq  TToiSa  fiovvov  Sr)  Tore 
riy^ai  ^\i<f)apov,  TaXairevOeo^; 

TTOTfJiov  oiKTipovra  (fxoTO*;' 

/cat   VLV  dfX€Lfi6fJi€vo<; 

ToV  ec^a*   OvaroiG'L  p^rj  <^vvai  <f)ipio'TOv.,, 

On  the  last  four  words  J  ebb  remarks,  of  course,  that 
they  are  the  first  half  of  the  familiar  maxim,  made 
famous  by  Theognis,  Sophocles,  and  others,  which 
further  said,  that  next  best  was  to  die  as  soo7i  as  one 
might.     Then  he  continues  thus: 

This  passage  illustrates  the  pathetic  power  of  Bacchy- 
lides.  It  is  impressive,  indeed,  that  this  should  be  said 
by  Heracles  '  the  unconquered.'  Yet  a  subtler  poet  would 
scarcely  have  made  him  say  it  here,  within  the  gates  of 
Hades,  to  Meleager,  whose  fate  he  pities.  For  the  first  part 
of  the  adage... inevitably  suggests  that  other  which  is  not 

spoken Contrast  the  manner  in  which  the  whole  jvco/jltj 

is  introduced  by  Sophocles  (O.  C.  1225  ff.).  As  uttered  by 
the  men  of  Colonus,  it  is  not  only  a  comment  on  the  trials 
of  Oedipus,  but  also  a  thought  which  turns  the  mind 
towards  his  approaching  release. 

The  sympathetic  Heracles  concluded  his  speech, 
according  to  Bacchylides,  thus:  "But,  seeing  that 
these  laments  avail  not,  a  man  should  speak  of  that 
which  he  can  hope  to  accomplish.  In  the  halls  of 
the  warrior  Oeneus  is  there  a  maiden  among  his 
daughters  like  in  form  to  thee.'^" — like,  that  is,  to 
Meleager,  the  ghost.  ''Fain  were  I  to  make  her 
my  queenly  bride." — 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  477 

aAA    ov  yap  rt?  ecrnv 
7rpd^L<;  raSe  iJLvpoiLivoi<^, 

^py]  K€ivo  \ey€Lv  otl  kol  fxeXkei  reXelp. 
rj  pa  rt9  iv  fieydpOL^ 

OLvrjo<;  dprj'L(f)iXov 
eariv  dSjjLiJTa  Ovydrpcov, 

croL   (^vav   dXty/cta; 
rdv  Kev  Xmapdv  idiXoyv   BeiyLav  aKOiTiv. 

Here  Jebb  puts  criticism  in  an  appendix. 

We  have  the  'BacchyHdes';  and,  partly  perhaps 
for  this  reason,  we  have  not  the  'Pindar',  which  some 
day,  if  days  had  been  more,  Jebb  would  have  given. 
We  cannot  have  everything ;  ov  tls  npd^Ls  raSe 
fjivpofievoL^.  And  there  is  the  essay  on  Pindar  in  the 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies^,  which,  with  that  on 
'The  Speeches  of  Thucydides'^  I  should  put  next 
in  value  after  the  two  great  editions.  Here  is  a  pene- 
trating and  characteristic  remark  from  the  '  Pindar 'I 
In  discussing  the  poet's  peculiar  treatment  of  meta- 
phor, we  come  naturally  to  the  too  famous  whetstone 
of  Olymp.  vi.  82,  which,  says  Pindar,  as  a  thought  upon 
his  lips,  ''woos  my  willing  soul  with  the  spirit  of  fair- 
flowing  strains":  ho^av  e^co  tlv  iwl  yXwcraa  aKOPas 
Xtyupa?,  and  so  on.  ''  There  is  a  general  principle," 
observes  Jebb, 

which  ought,  I  think,  to  be  clearly  perceived.      Most 
Indo-European    nouns   expressed    some  one   obvious  and 

^  Reprinted  in  Essays  and  Addresses^  P-  4i- 

^  Originally  in  Hellenica^  reprinted  in  Essays  and  Addresses^ 

P-  359- 

^  Essays  and  Addresses,  p.  83. 


47^  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

characteristic  quality  of  the  object  which  they  denoted  : 
e.g.  vav<;  is  "  the  swimmer,"  Bpv<i  "  the  thing  which  is  cleft," 
etc.  Similarly,  aKovr]  is  the  sharpener,  Kparrjp  is  the  mixer, 
etc.  A  Greek  who  called  a  thought  an  aKovr)  was  thus 
using  a  less  startling  image  than  we  should  use  in  calling 

it  a  whetstone And  such  phrases  are  less  audacious  in 

proportion  as  they  are  old,  i.e.  near  to  the  time  when  the 
language  was  still  freshly  conscious  of  the  primary  sense. 

Whether  this  be  a  sufficient  defence  for  Pindar  or 
no — Jebb  does  not  say  so, — the  principle  ought 
indeed,  as  he  says,  to  be  clearly  perceived,  and  easily 
may  escape  notice. 

I  pass  over,  with  this  slight  indication,  a  great 
mass  of  useful  but  subordinate  work,  and  come  to 
the  last  part  of  my  programme,  some  remarks  on 
Jebb's  compositions  In  Greek  and  Latin.  "  What 
have  you  done,"  said  a  man  of  science,  "  when  and  if 
you  have  made  a  piece  of  Greek  verse,  which,  for 
anything  that  we  see,  might  have  been  written  by 
a  contemporary  of  the  classics  "^  What  does  It 
signify  .'^  "  Not  very  much,  perhaps,  to  knowledge  ; 
yet  not  nothing  either,  when  the  thing  Is  done  as  by 
Jebb.  One  might  lecture  long  on  the  fundamental 
affinity  of  all  great  poetry  throughout  the  ages,  on 
the  Immense  proportion  which  the  common  proper- 
ties bear,  In  point  of  mass,  to  the  temporary  or 
personal  variations,  without  producing  as  much  con- 
viction as  Jebb  produces,  by  translating  Wordsworth's 
'Intimations  of  Immortality',  the  whole  ode,  from 
beginning  to  end,  into  Greek  hexameters.  The 
stately  and  unbroken  rhythm  gives  Indeed  a  different 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  479 

effect  from  the  subtly  varied  stanzas  of  the  original, 
but  it  is  not  less  appropriate  to  the  philosophic 
attitude,  and  every  thought  flows  into  the  ancient 
language  like  bullion  into  a  flawless  mould. 

'*  See,  at  his  feet,  some  little  plan  or  chart, 
Some  fragment  from  his  dream  of  human  life." 

TjvCSe  Sdkrtop  ol  tl  napal  ttoctIt^  rje  tl  7rXacr/ia, 
helyfia  ^iov  rov  t    avTos  ovupoirokoiv  VTreypaxjjev. 

"Thou,  over  whom  thy  Immortality 
Broods  like  the  day,  a  Master  o'er  a  Slave, 
A  presence  which  is  not  to  be  put  by." 

creto  yap  d6dvaTO<s  Saificov  'TTrepiovos  avyal^ 
Tcro9  virepKpefjiaTaL,  ^SacrtXeu?  6'  ws  Otjtos  dvdcrcroiv 
rjV€Kio}<;  re  irdpecrTL  kol  ovk  iOeXei  irapecoarOai. 

'*  My  heart  is  at  your  festival. 
My  head  hath  its  coronal, 
The  fulness  of  your  bliss,   I  feel — I   feel  it  all." 

TrdpecfJiL  8e  /cauro?  ioprrj^ 
ocrcrov  ofiocj^poveeLv  ye,   Kop.dq  r    dyeSrjaa    koI  avTos 
pAjpC   latvofxevo^;  /i-era  fxvpC   laivofJiivoLcnv. 

"  Thoughts  that  do  often    lie  too  deep  for  tears." 
Kpicrcrova  /cat   SaKpvcov    /xeXeSi^/AaTa    ^vcraoSojJieveLi'. 

This  fineness  of  touch,  this  sure  dexterity  and 
exact  comprehension,  belong  to  every  piece  in  the 
volume.  That  the  task  is  always  so  well  chosen 
would  be  too  much  to  say ;    and  in  one  instance 


480  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

I  think  the  choice  unfortunate^  The  tragic  metres 
are  handled,  needless  to  say,  with  mastery,  and  the 
effect,  where  the  matter  is  within  compass,  Is  un- 
failingly delightful. 

"  But  when   I  met 
Merlin,  and  asked  him  If  these  things  were  truth — 
The  shining  dragon  and  the  naked  child 
Descending  in  the  glory  of  the  seas — 
He  laughed  as  is  his  wont,  and  answered  me 
In  riddling  triplets  of  old  time,   and  said  : 

Rain,  rain,  and  sun!   a  rainbow  on  the  lea! 
And  triUh  is  this  to  7ne,  and  that  to  thee  ; 
And  truth  or  clothed  or  naked  let  it  be, 

Rain^  sun,  and  rain  !  and  the  free  blossom  blows. 
Sun,  rain,  and  sun !  and  where  is  he  who  knows  f 
From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes.'' 

iyo)  8e  TO)  KaX^a^rt  avuTv^ovcr*  ore 
el  raur'  ctt^tu/x'   etre  TrXaor'  di/r}p6fjLr)Vt 
Kekaat  daXdcrcrrjq  Tra/xc^aoi)?  7r€pLcrT€(f)€s 
yvixvov  SpaKOVTL  ^vv  TravaioXo)  ^pi(f)0<^j 
yeK(x)v  TO   S77   ^vi^r)de<;  duT€cj)0ey^aTO 
alvLyfJLaTOt)Sei<s  /cat  7raXaL(f>dT0vs  crrt^a?* 
rr)0€  fX€P  avyo)v  ryoe  o    air    ofMfSpojp 
/ce^urai  noXv-^povs  T/>tS  in    dypol^' 

^  Milton's  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  represented  by  a  Latin 
Alcaic  poem  of  more  than  200  lines.  The  length  serves  to  excuse 
some  '  cutting ',  and  not  a  few  roughnesses.  "  Regem  fatebantur 
venire  |  ^ra  metu  pavefacta  regum"  is  scarcely  to  be  taken  with 
content  for  "  And  kings  sat  still  with  awful  eye,  As  if  they  surely 
knew  their  sovran  Lord  was  by." 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  481 

ccrri  S'  dXrjdes  tovto  fiev  rjixlv, 
vyuv  S'  erepov    cra<^e9  ovv  ecTTO), 

KeKaXvfJLjjievov  eir  cLKoXvirTov. 
rj8v  iikv  ofji/SpoLS  178 V  S'  eV  eiXrf 
KakvKdiv  avdel  ydvo<;  auro^ves* 
TLS  Se  Sieyvco  hvo^ip    elXuKpLvcov 

KevOficoT^os    eSefaro   k€vOijl(op. 

In  Latin,  J  ebb's  skill  as  a  manipulator  of  language 
is  not  less  than  in  Greek,  though  some  might  per- 
haps say  of  him,  as  a  Latin  poet,  what  Cicero,  with 
his  Roman  sensorium,  said  of  the  best  Athenian 
oratory,  that  somehow  '  non  implet  aures.'  Possibly 
he  is,  in  a  certain  way,  a  little  too  Augustan — if  that 
is  intelligible.  But  if  there  are,  or  can  be,  any 
Horatian  lyrics  except  those  of  Horace,  an  English- 
man would  claim  the  title  for  J  ebb's  renderings  from 
In  Memoriam — '  Dost  thou  look  back  on  what  hath 
been...',  as  Alcaics,  or,  still  better,  'Witch-elms  that 
counterchange  the  floor...',  in  the  prevalent  metre 
of  the  Epodes  : — 

"  O  bliss,  when  all  in  circle  drawn 

About  him,  heart  and  ear  were  fed 
To  hear  him,  as  he  lay  and  read 
The  Tuscan  poets  on  the  lawn." 

'*  O  quom  beati  cingeremus  Laelium 
stratum  in  virenti  caespite, 
quam  cordibus  vox,  quam  placebat  auribus, 
vates  legentis  Atticos  !  " 

J.  M.  31 


482  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

And  miraculous,  to  the  degree  of  illusion,  is  this 
transformation  of  Keats  : 

...'^Ah!    would  'twere  so  with  many 
A  gentle  girl  and  boy ! 
But  were  there  ever  any 
Writhed  not  at  passed  joy  ? 
To  know  the  change  and  feel  it, 
When  there  is  none  to  heal  it, 
Nor  numbed  sense  to  steal  it — 
Was  never  said  in  rhyme." 

''virgines  o  si  iuvenesque  nuper 
fervidi  Lethen  biberent  eandem  ! 
sed  quis  angori  moderetur  orbus 

deliciarum  ? 
'  unde  quo  veni  ? '   dolor  ingementis, 
nulla  quem  vincit  medicina,  nullus 
decipit  torpor,  quibus  exprimatur 

carmina  quaerit." 

In  such  a  mirror,  as  in  St  Mary's  Lake,  the  poetry 
'  floats  double,  swan  and  shadow' ;  and  we  fancy,  un- 
reproved,  that  Apollo  of  the  Palatine  may  hear  again 
the  music  of  his  sacred  birds  from  the  dust-strewn 
mere  which  remembers  the  temple  of  Delos. 

Most  famous  of  Jebb's  compositions,  and  in 
some  respects  justly  so,  are  the  imitations  of  Pindar, 
of  which  the  first  known  was  the  translation  of 
Browning's  *Abt  Vogler'  into  the  metres  of  the 
Fourth  Pythian,  the  opening  piece  in  the  original 
collection  of  1873.     The  very  conception  of  such  an 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  483 

experiment,  both  matter  and  manner,  strikes  the 
'classical  man'  with  a  sense  of  awe.  Yet  the  promise 
is  kept: — 

''But  here  is  the  finger  of  God,  a  flash  of  the  will 
that  can. 
Existent  behind  all  laws,  that  made  them,  and, 
lo,  they  are! 
And    I    know    not   if,    save   in   this,    such    gift   be 
allowed  to  man. 
That  out  of  three  sounds  he  frame,  not  a  fourth 
sound,  but  a  star." 

vvv  8e  SaifJicov  i^eKoiKvipe  ^iav, 

aaTpanav  cSg,   TravTonopov    KpaSia^,   Oecrfxcov  Kvei^ioiov 

T€KTov^  apLTTpeTrecov 
TTOV  yap  i^rjv  aWo  ^poTols  tl  tol6pS\    olov   /ctuttovs 

rpels  crvfJiTrXdcravTL 
fxr)  TerpaTOP  ktvttov  dkka  creXa?  7rdix<^\eKrov   alpeiv ; 

One  would  like  to  propound  this  to  Pindar,  in  return 
for  some  problems  of  his.  But  however  he  might 
understand  it,  to  us  it  is  a  revelation,  deepening,  by 
the  sense  of  affinity  in  difference,  our  comprehension 
both  of  English  poetry  and  of  Greek. 

It  is  an  instructive  fact,  and  deserving  mention  as 
such,  that,  though  the  versification  of  this  celebrated 
piece  is  almost  invariably  melodious,  and  often  (as 
in  the  second  line  of  the  citation)  magnificent,  it  is 
not  always  perfectly  faithful  to  the  Pindaric  model 
proposed.  Thus  the  3rd  line  of  the  ist  anti- 
strophe, 

cus  e/cacTTOt  avfJiTTOveov,  cnropdSap  cir'  IkaSop,  TTpoOvfiOL, 

31—2 


484  Sir  Richard  J  ebb 

however  satisfactory  in  itself,  is  not  identical  in 
rhythm,  as  it  should  be,  with  its  strophic  pair: 

7rp6(nro)C  opaaL^  (jiOeyfiad*  erot/xa  OiyoyVy  ws  hanxovoiv 
oparei/  iroravav — 

having  no  equivalent  for  the  two  long  syllables  of 
opaev.  Three  similar  discrepancies  occur  elsewhere \ 
They  must  be  mere  oversights;  for  Jebb,  who  applied 
to  the  lyrics  of  Attic  tragedy  canons  of  responsion 
perhaps  stricter  than  our  evidence  proves^,  is  not 
at  all  likely  to  have  departed  intentionally  from  the 
severity  of  Pindar.  The  truth  is,  that,  without  the 
musical  accompaniment,  Oecrfxcov  Kvecjialop  TeKTova, 
the  choric  strophd  has  no  sensible  limits.  Pindar  is 
for  us,  as  he  was  for  Horace,  'unmeasured';  and, 
so  long  as  a  line  ran  well,  not  even  Jebb  could  say, 
without  counting,  whether  it  had,  or  had  not,  the 
proper  number  of  syllables.  But  I  hasten  to  add 
that,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  there  are  no  flaws, 
even  of  this  innocent  sort,  in  the  beautiful  ode,  a 
marvel  of  invention  and  grace,  which  he  composed, 
as  ambassador  from  the  University  of  Glasgow,  for 
the  Sooth  anniversary  of  the  University  of  Bologna. 
Upon  the  model  of  Bologna  the  Scottish  corporation 
was  constituted  in  a.d.  1450  by  Pope  Nicholas  V. 

^  Epod.  2,  V.  4  Tis  K€i/ ,  Sir.  3,  v.  7  o-vv  Svoiv ,  Str.  4,  v.  3 

ov  y*  ttTra^. . . .,  are  imperfect  lines.  There  are  discrepancies  also 
in  'The  Reign  of  Youth'  (added  in  the  2nd  edition,  p.  275). 
See  for  instance  the  penultimate  verse  of  the  first  strophe  ttvci  8* 
aKpat<^v€9...,  where  the  word  ar^os  gives  one  long  syllable  too 
much. 

*  e.g.  Phil.  1094.      The  dactyl  ou  yap  It  is  conceivably  right. 


The  Scholar  and  C^ntic  485 

"Go  on  then,"  says  the  poet,  in  his  final  salutation, 
to  the  academic  Mother,  ''Go  on  then,  Thou,  to  the 
Muses  dear,  in  these  summits  of  high  praise!  For, 
as  kind  children  keep  for  ever  green  the  memory  of 
a  parent,  best  flower  of  reverent  hearts,  such  pious 
guerdon  have  thy  colonists  dedicated  to  Thee, 
from  whom  they  came.  And  such  is  this  song  from 
Scotland,  prosperously  sent  over  sea  from  home  to 
home,  from  the  far  stream  of  Clyde  to  a  Senate  of 
Italy.  It  was  the  Wind  of  the  North,  they  say, 
that  rapt  Erechtheus'  daughter  from  the  City  of  the 
Violet  Crown,  and  the  banks  of  fair  Ilissus  where 
she  played." — 

^aOi  oijy  MoicraLcri  <^t\a,  fjLeydXcjp  ratcrS*  ii/  Kopv(^(uaLv 

iiraivoiV 
Tratcri  yap   oj?  wapa  KeSvols  a<^0iTO^ 
ov  KaTa^vWopoel 
TOKecou  jxvdfjLaj   (jypevcjp 
dvOos  alSoLecTTaTov, 

TOLOT/Se  tIv  evcre^es  dyfcetrat  yepa^ 

IxaTpoTToXeL  Trap*  dTTOiKOiv  ota  Ka\7)86vLOP 

/cat  roS'  virelp  dka  Tre/xTrerai  fxeXos, 

OLKoOev  oLKaS*  iirovpop 

TrjXeTTopoi    airo  KXwra?    Irakov  es  Trpxrraveiov 

^avTi  8e  KOI  Bopeav  loa'T€(f)dv(ov  dir  *A6avdv  dprrdo-aL 

TOLV  ^FipexOrjiha,    KaWipoov 

Trait,ovcrav  'iXioro-ov   ireka^. 

With    this    melodious    and    pregnant    sentence    the 
poet's  readers  may  themselves  most  aptly  sum  and 


486  Sir  Richard  Jed b 

conclude  their  opinion  on  a  book,  to  which,  in  this 
province  of  art,  one  will  hardly  find  an  equal. 

I  have  now  completed  my  plan,  and,  discarding 
criticism,  will  take  leave  to  add  but  a  few  words  of  a 
more  personal  bearing.  It  is  not  without  reflexion 
that  I  have  repeatedly  coupled  the  name  of  Jebb 
with  that  of  Addison.  Unless  I  mistake,  there  is 
a  real  similarity  of  genius  and  type.  Again  and 
again,  watching  and  listening  to  Jebb  in  the  lecture- 
room,  in  society,  or  alone  with  him,  was  I  reminded 
of  the  traits  attributed  by  tradition  to  the  author  of 
the  vision  of  Mirzah\  The  veil  of  reserve  and  the 
sudden  glow,  the  sensibility,  the  cover  of  outward 
patience,  the  hint  and  the  hesitation,  and  above  all, 
the  side-glance  of  the  eye,  demure  and  humorous, — 
all  must  have  noted  these,  who  had  any  intercourse 
with  Jebb.  Not  many  years  since,  I  attended,  for 
the  purpose  of  certain  teaching,  in  which  I  was  acting 
as  his  coadjutor,  some  courses  of  lectures  which  he 
gave  in  Cambridge,  as  Professor,  on  the  history  of 
Greek  Literature.  Apart  from  the  direct  profit,  it 
was  an  exquisite  feast  of  observation.  The  class 
was  large,  and  consisted  almost  entirely  of  young 
students.  The  lectures,  designed  to  cover  nearly  the 
whole  subject  in  four  terms,  were  models  of  pro- 
portional compression  ;  and  though  of  course  they 
proceeded  mainly  upon  familiar  lines,  they  were  full 
of  slight  but  significant  touches  of  differentiation  or 
correction.  It  was  a  lesson  in  itself,  to  follow  the 
management  of  voice  and  feature,  with  which  these 
^  Spectator^  no.  159. 


The  Scholar  and  Critic  487 

were  submitted  to  an  audience,  whose  convictions, 
for  the  most  part,  were  not  easily  to  be  disturbed,  or 
indeed  to  be  found.  Better  still  was  it,  to  have 
J  ebb  upon  the  hearth,  and  to  propound — as  was  not 
difficult — some  view  which  he  would  scruple  to  pass. 
Looking  back  on  many  such  hours,  it  is  something, 
that  at  least  one  has  not  to  lay  to  oneself  the  re- 
proach of  Ajax:  ''They  know  not  the  good  they 
have,  until  it  be  dashed  from  their  hands."  Now 
from  the  portrait,  silent  upon  the  wall,  we  turn  to 
the  speaking  page. 

A.  W.  V. 


INDEX 


Acrostics,  76,  324,  325 
"Ad  Eundem"   Club,  124 
Adams,  Professor,  no 
Addenbrooke's  Hospital  Bill,  385 
Aeschylus,  translation  from,   109, 

no 
Amateur     Dramatic     Club,     40 ; 

Jubilee  celebration  of,  411 
American  Lectureship,  81 
Anson,  Sir  William,  362,  366,  371 
"Apostles"  Society,  22,  116,  160, 

209 

Archaeology,    Classical,    2n  fF.  ; 

opening    of   new    museum    of, 

at   Cambridge,    252  ;    see    also 

Athens 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  letter  from,  265 

Asquith,  Mr,  Welsh  Disestabhsh- 

ment  Bill  of,  290 
Athenaeum  Club,  227 
Athens,    proposal    for    founding 
British      School     at,      2n  ff., 
244  fF. ;    article     on,    in    Fort- 
nightly Review^   246  ff.  ;   fund 
started  for,  248  ;  site  given  by 
the    Greek   Government,   248 ; 
first   annual   meeting  of,   263  ; 
large  meeting  of,  in  St  James's 
Palace,  308,  309  ;  annual  meet- 
ing of,  370 
Attic  Orators  fro7n  Antiphon  to 
Isaeus^  publication  of,  196 

Bacchylides,  newly  found  frag- 
ments of,  323,  324  ;  Jebb's 
edition  of,  418,  473 


Bateman,  Miss  Ada,  marriage 
of,  60,  61 

Beach,  M.  E.  Hicks,  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  letter  from, 
on  the  inscription  for  the 
Coinage,  366 

Begg,  Faithfull,  Women's  Suf- 
frage Bill  of,  320 

Benefices    Bills,    316,    326,    327, 

331,  332 

Bentley,   Jebb's  book   on,   232  ff. 

Blackie,  Professor,  challenge  of, 
in  the  Scotsman^  222  ff. 

Blass,  Dr,  196,  197 

Blore,  E.  W.,  death  of,  261 

Board  of  Education,  Consultative 
Committee  of  the,  354 

Board  of  Education  Bill,  347, 
348 

Boat  Races,  47  ff. 

Bodleian  Tercentenary,  y]']  ff. 

Bologna  University,  800th  anni- 
versary of,  265 

Botham,  Mary,  8 

Bourke,  Frances  Emma,  8 

Bourke,  Sir  Richard,  of  Thorn- 
fields,  County  Limerick,  8 

Bradshaw,  Mr,  of  King's  College, 
death  of,  261 

Brancaleoni,  Marchese,  200,  201 

British  Academy,  meetings  to 
consider  the  formation  of,  350, 
351  ;  charter  granted,  372  ; 
takes  its  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  International  Asso- 
ciation of  Academies,  399 


31—5 


490 


Index 


British  Association  meeting  at 
Cambridge,  404,  405  ;  meeting 
at  Capetown,  421 

British  Museum,  Jebb  appointed 
Trustee  of,  384,  385 

British  School  at  Athens,  see 
Athens 

Brooks,  Dr  (Bishop)  Phillips, 
260,  261 

Browning,  O.,  205 

Browning,  Robert,  letter  from, 
on  J  ebb's  book  of  Transla- 
tions,  144;  rhyming  of,   171 

Burial  Grounds  Committee  ap- 
pointed,  322,   323  ;   report    of, 

Zl^^  337 

Burke,  Edmund,  8 

Burnand,  Sir  Frank,  at  the  Ama- 
teur Dramatic  Club  Jubilee,  41 1 

Butcher,  S.  H.,  elected  to  the 
Greek  Chair  at  Edinburgh,  244 

Butler,  H.  Montagu,  letters 
from,  on  the  Rede  Lecture, 
274  ff.;  letters  from,  on  J  ebb's 
portrait,  385,  386,  394,  405  ; 
writes  an  inscription  for  me- 
morial tablet  to  Jebb,  426 

Caird,    Principal  J.,   letter  from, 

on  Jebb's  leaving  Glasgow,  268 
Cambridge  Corporation  Bill,  301, 

302 
Cambridge  Rifle  Corps,  40,  45,  51 
Carlton  Club,  409 
Carnarvon,  Welsh  University  at, 

376 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  348 
Catholicism,     reinvigoration     of, 

126 
Charterhouse,    16  ff.  ;    inaugura- 
tion of  the  Memorial  Cloister 

at,  387  ff. 
Church  Defence  Institution,  iii 
Church       Emergency       League, 

meeting  of,  at  Cambridge,  406, 

407 
Church  Reform  League,  316 
Clark,  Walter  C,  letter  from,  264 
Clark,  W.  G.,  Public  Orator,  97 
Classical   Archaeology,   proposal 

to  found  School  of,  2 1 1  ff.  ;  see 

also  Athens 


Classical  Tripos,  reform  of  the, 
325  ;  Regulations  for,  342 

Coinage,  letter  on  the  inscription 
for  the,  367,  368 

Convocation,  Bill  to  reform  con- 
stitution of,  355 

Cornish,  Mr  F.  Warre  (Vice- 
Provost  of  Eton),  20 

Cranborne,  Lord  (Lord  Salisbury), 
letter  from,  323 

Craven  Scholarship,  27,  28,  30  ff. 

Dante  contrasted  with  Milton, 
113,  114;  a  Dante  reading,  121 

Darwin,  Professor  George,  252, 
253  ;  marriage  of,  254  ;  letter 
from,  352 

De  Tocqueville,  De7nocracy  in 
Atnerica^  124 

de  Witt,  Amelia,  2 

de  Witt,  Cornelius,  2 

de  Witt,  Jacob,  2 

de  Witt,  John,  2 

Denney,  Rev.  Dr,  on  Jebb's 
work  at  Glasgow,  186  ff. 

Devonshire,  Duke  of,  175,  249,  ^^,2)3 

Dilettanti  Society,  225,  226 

Disestablishment,  see  Welsh  Dis- 
establishment Bill 

Disraeli,   128,  131 

Duff,  J.  D.,  on  the  editions  of 
Sophocles'  Ajax  and  Electra, 
92,  93  ;  on  Jebb's  knowledge 
of  modern  Greek,  100,  loi 

Duff,  Sir  M.  E.  Grant,  letter 
from,  315 

Eastern  tour,  64  ff. 

Eaton,  Fred.  A.,  letter  from,  343 

Ecce  Homo,  Jebb's  opinion  of, 
84,  85 

Education  Bill,  Sir  John  Gorst's, 
313,  314  ;  Mr  Balfour's,  362  ff., 
374,  38 1,. 382 

Edward,  King,  illness  of,  yj7 

Eliot,  George  (Mrs  Lewes),  155, 
156 

Erasmus,  Jebb's  essay  on.  for 
the  Rede  Lecture,  275,  276 

Escott,  Mr,  editor  of  the  Fort- 
nightly Review,  246,  248 

Eton,    Vice-Provost    of    (Mr    F. 


Index 


491 


Warre  Cornish),  description  of 
Jebb  at  Cambridge,  20,  21 

Evans,  Eleanor,  177 

Evans,  Owen,  177,  178 

Fawcett,  Professor,  80,  116,  118, 
119,  125  ;  death  of,  256 

Finlay,  Jane  Louisa,  6,  7 

Finlay,  John,  6 

Finlay,  Sir  Robert,  401 

Firbeck  Hall,  Yorkshire,  i^,  38,  55 

Fiscal  Reform,  J  ebb's  letter  on, 
395  ff.  ;  debate  in  the  Lords,  403 

Forestry,  School  of,  408 

Forster,  Alicia,  3 

Forster,  Charles,  son  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  Forster,  32,  33 

Forster,  Rev.  Charles,  Life  of 
Bishop  febb^  7 

Foster,  Sir  Michael,  350 

Freeman,  Professor  Edward,  let- 
ter from,  175 

Garnett,  Dr,  letter  from,  384,  385 

Gennadius,  John,  Greek  Charge 
d' Affaires,  215 

German  Institute  of  Archaeo- 
logy, 252 

Gildersleeve,  Professor,  of  Balti- 
more, 400 

Gilliver,  Elizabeth,  2 

Gilliver,  Richard,  2 

Girton  College,  133 

Gladstone,  Mr,  elected  Lord 
Rector  of  Glasgow  University, 
207  ;  death  of,  330 

Glasgow,  failure  of  City  of  Glas- 
gow Bank,  213  ;  Dialectic 
Society,  256 

Glasgow  University,  Jebb's  ap- 
pointment to  the  Greek  Chair 
at,  179,  180  ;  attack  on,  by  the 
schoolmasters,  235  ff. ;  ninth 
Jubilee  of,  360,  361 

Glenbervie,  Lord,  Irish  Secre- 
tary, 4 

Goethe  contrasted  with  Schiller, 
136;  remarks  on,  138 

Gold  Cross  of  the  Saviour  con- 
ferred on  Jebb  by  the  King  of 
Greece,  210 

Gomperz,  Professor  Theodor,  399 


Gorst,  Sir  John,  elected  to  Par- 
liament, 281;  re-election,  309; 
introduces  an  Education  Bill, 
313;  re-elected  to  Parliament, 
357 ;  introduces  Education  Bill 
No.  2,  364 

Greece,  Jebb's  first  visit  to,  208, 
209 

Harcourt,  Vernon,  Solicitor- 
General,  166,  167 

Hare,  Rev.  Dr,  4,  5 

Harvard,  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society,  251 

Hayes,  Mr,  Professor  of  Greek 
in  the  United  States,  162 

Headlam,  Dr  Walter,  letter  from, 

393,  394      . 
Hellenic    Society,    formation    of 

the,     215  ff.  ;    Jebb     becomes 

President  of,  273  ;   celebration 

of   its    25th    anniversary,    399, 

400 ;    sends   Latin   address   to 

Professor  Michaelis  on  his  70th 

birthday,  414 
Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  Reaimah,  115, 

116,  160 
Hervey,  Lord  John,  86,  87,  95 
Higher  Education,  Congress  of, 

at  Paris,  355 
Historical   Studies,  Congress  of, 

at  Rome,  386,  387 
Homer's  Iliad,  107 
Hopkinson,     Mrs     John,     letter 

from,  423 
Horsley,  Eglantyne,  8,  9  ;  death 

of,  231 
Horsley,  Emily  Harriet,  7,  8 
Horsley,  Frances  Emma  ("Aunt 

Fanny"),  8,  9,  10 
Horsley,  John,  Rector  of  Thor- 

ley,  8 
Horsley,  Rev.  Heneage,  Dean  of 

Brechin,  i,  7,  8 
Horsley,  Samuel  ("  Uncle  Sam  "), 

8,  12 
Horsley,   Samuel,   Bishop   of  St 

Asaph's,  7,  8 
Horsley  family,  7,  8 
Howard,  George,  169,  170 
Hugo,    Victor,    Lannie    terrible, 

140,  141 


492 


Index 


Hullah,  Mr,  164,  165 
Humphreys,  Mr  Arthur,  95 
Hunt,     Holman,    description    of 

his  "The  Shadow  of  Death," 

170,  171 
Hutchinson,       Sir      W.       Hely, 

Governor     of     Cape     Colony, 

421,   422 

International  Association  of 
Academies,  350,  351,  399 

Irish  Tithes  Commutation  Bill,  5 

Irish  University  Education,  Royal 
Commission  on,  360,  369,  370 

Ischl,  visit  to,  205 

Italy,  Central,  visit  to,  200,  201 

Jebb,  Arthur  Trevor,  12  n. ;  death 

of>  303 

Jebb,  Dr  John,   i,  i  n.,  2,  3 

Jebb,  Eglantyne  (Mrs  Arthur 
Jebb),  II,  12,  12  n. 

Jebb,  John,  Bishop  of  Limerick,  3  ff. 

Jebb,  John,  Rector  of  Peterstow,  7 

Jebb,  Lady  Amelia,  37 

Jebb,  Miss  Susan,  26 

Jebb,  Mrs  John,  i  n. 

Jebb,  Richard,  son  of  Ur  John 
Jebb,  4  fif. 

Jebb,  Richard,  son  of  Samuel 
Jebb,  3 

Jebb,  Richard,  Vicar-General  in 
the  Isle  of  Man,  7 

Jebb,  Richard  Claverhouse  : 
birth,  i;  family  history,  i — 8; 
the  Dublin  home,  9ff. ;  his  first 
letter,  11  ;  the  new  home  at 
Killiney,  12  ;  has  lessons  from 
his  father,  13 ;  goes  to  St 
Columba's  College,  Rathfarn- 
ham,  14 ;  his  rapid  progress, 
15  ;  receives  the  school  prize, 
15;  Rev.  W.  Tuckwell's  descrip- 
tion of  him  as  a  boy,  16; 
leaves  St  Columba's  and  goes 
to  Charterhouse,  16 ;  leaves 
Charterhouse,  18  ;  receives  a 
prize  for  theological  essay,  one 
for  mathematics,  and  medals 
for  Latin  prose  and  Greek  verse, 
19 ;  Charterhouse's  last  message, 
19  ;  goes  up  to  Cambridge,  20  ; 


elected  an  "  Apostle,"  22  ;  wins 
the  Porson  Scholarship,  25  ;  is 
awarded  the  Craven  Scholar- 
ship, 30  ;  passes  the  Little-Go, 
and  is  elected  to  a  Trinity 
Scholarship,  34  ;  his  first  love, 
34,  35,  40,  41  ;  question  as  to  a 
profession,  36  ;  his  interest  in 
the  Cambridge  Rifle  Corps,  40; 
is  elected  a  member  of  the 
Amateur  Dramatic  Club,  40 ; 
reads  an  essay  to  the  "Society," 
44  ;  describes  the  Cambridge 
Boat  Races,  48  ff. ;  Tripos  Ex- 
amination, 54,  55  ;  Senior 
Classic,  55  ;  takes  his  degree, 
55 ;  Assistant  Master  at  Harrow, 
56 ;  lectures  at  Cambridge,  56, 
57  ;  reads  an  essay  to  the 
"  Society,"  63 ;  elected  to  a 
Fellowship  at  Trinity  College, 
64  ;  arrangements  for  an  East- 
ern tour,  64  ;  visits  Alexandria 
and  Cairo,  65  ;  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, the  first  Cataract,  Assouan, 
and  the  Island  of  Philae,  67  ; 
illness  of,  69 ;  weekly  con- 
tributor to  the  "  Saturday,"  75  ; 
solution  and  composition  of 
acrostics,  76;  his  consideration 
for  the  feelings  of  others,  78  ; 
his  opinion  of  Ecce  Hovw^  84, 
85  ;  tour  on  the  Loire,  86  ff. ; 
talk  on  Ritualism,  89  ;  spends 
a  vacation  in  Dresden,  89  ff. ; 
publishes  his  first  book,  the 
Electra  of  Sophocles,  92  ;  de- 
scription of  Tennyson,  94 ;  stays 
at  Festiniog  in  Wales,  95  ;  his 
paper  on  changes  in  the  Classi- 
cal Tripos,  96 ;  becomes  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of 
Public  Orator,  97  ;  and  is 
elected,  98  ;  delivers  a  speech 
in  modern  Greek,  \oo :  pub- 
lishes Characters  of  Theophras- 
tus^  102  ;  correspondence  with 
his  future  wife,  103  ff. ;  views  on 
religion,  102  ff. ;  and  on  dis- 
establishment, III,  112;  at- 
tends Thanksgiving  Service  for 
the  recovery  of  the  Prince  of 


Index 


493 


Wales,  I26ff.  ;  lectures  on  Mil: 
ton,  132  ;  letter  on  Schiller, 
133  fif.  ;  appointed  Tutor  of 
Trinity  College,  143  ;  resigns 
the  office,  144 ;  publishes  a 
book  of  Translations,  144  ; 
visit  to  Italy,  151,  152  ;  meets 
George  Eliot,  155,  156;  assists 
at  a  spiritualistic  seance,  167  ; 
views  on  spiritualism,  167,  168; 
pays  a  visit  to  the  Tennysons, 
169;  at  Killarney,  172  ff.;  six- 
teen Latin  speeches  at  con- 
ferring of  honorary  Degrees, 
174,  175  ;  marriage,  177  ;  home 
in  St  Peter's  Terrace,  Cam- 
bridge, 179  ;  elected  to  the 
Greek  Chair  at  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity, 180  ;  moves  to  Glas- 
gow, 181  ;  inaugural  address, 
1 83  fif.  ;  presides  at  social  meet- 
ing of  Junior  Greek  Class,  195, 
196  ;  publishes  his  Attic  Ora- 
tors^ 196 ;  writes  the  inscrip- 
tion for  Macaulay's  statue  in 
Trinity  College  Chapel,  198, 
199 ;  visit  to  Central  Italy, 
200 ;  prepares  a  Primer  of 
Greek  Literature,  201  ;  resigns 
his  Fellowship  and  the  Public 
Oratorship,  201  ;  stay  at  Ischl, 
205  ;  work  at  the  Primer, 
204  fif.  ;  first  visit  to  Greece, 
208,  209  ;  presides  at  the  din- 
ner of  the  "  Apostles,"  209  ; 
seized  with  illness,  209;  the 
Gold  Cross  of  the  Saviour 
conferred  upon,  by  the  King 
of  Greece,  210  ;  scheme  for 
founding  an  English  School  of 
Archaeology  at  Athens  and 
Rome,  212,  213  ;  receives  an 
honorary  Degree  at  Edinburgh 
University,  214  ;  letter  on  the 
formation  of  the  Hellenic  So- 
ciety, 215  ;  Vice-President  of 
the  Hellenic  Society,  216;  let- 
ter on  the  editorship  of  the 
Journal  of  Helle7iic  Studies^ 
217,  218  ;  Selections  from  the 
Attic  Orators,  220 ;  visit  to 
Paris,     221,     222  ;     Professor 


Blackie's  challenge  to,  in  the 
Scotsman,  and  J  ebb's  reply, 
222  fif.  ;  lectures  before  the 
Edinburgh  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, 225  ;  and  at  Oxford,  225; 
elected  a  member  of  the  Dilet- 
tanti Society,  225  ;  elected  an 
honorary  member  of  the 
Literary  Society,  226 ;  elected 
a  member  of  the  Athenaeum, 
227  ;  visit  to  Venice,  228  ; 
takes  possession  of  Springfield, 
230  ;  illness  of,  232  ;  works  at 
his  book  on  Bentley,  232,  233  ; 
takes  part  in  the  controversy 
on  University  reform,  237  fif.  ; 
visit  to  Florence,  241  ;  visit  to 
the  Troad,  242,  243  ;  letter  on 
the  proposed  School  at  Athens, 
244  fif.  ;  Fortfiightly  Reviezv 
article,  246,  247  :  interview  with 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  248  ;  his 
mother's  death,  249  ;  first 
volume  of  his  large  edition  of 
Sophocles  {Oedipus  Tyr annus) 
published,  250,  251  ;  work  at 
a  translation  of  Ajax,  251  ; 
invited  to  address  the  Harvard 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  251  ; 
elected  corresponding  member 
of  the  German  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  252  ;  voyage  to 
America,  253  ;  delivers  his  ad- 
dress at  Harvard,  253  ;  receives 
the  Harvard  honorary  Degree 
of  LL.D.,  253  ;  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Glasgow  Dialectic 
Society,  256 ;  speech  at  the 
Royal    Academy    dinner,    259, 

260  ;  death  of  his  father,  261  ; 
the  Oedipus  Coloneus  finished, 

261  ;  work  on  a  second  edition 
of  Oedipus  Tyrannus,  262  ; 
publishes  his  bitroduction  to 
Homer,  262  ;  speaks  at  a  politi- 
cal meeting  at  Glasgow,  264  ; 
addresses  the  West  of  Scotland 
Teachers'  Guild,  264  ;  is  ap- 
pointed a  delegate  to  the  800th 
anniversary  of  Bologna  Uni- 
versity, 265  ;  composes  a  Greek 
Ode    on    the    occasion,    265  ; 


494 


Index 


receives  an  honorary  Degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  at  Bologna 
and  at  Dublin  University,  and 
is  elected  an  Honorary  Fellow 
of  Trinity  College,  266  ;  depar- 
ture from  Glasgow,  266  ff.  ; 
offers  himself  for  the  Greek 
Professorship,  269  ;  elected  to 
the  Greek  Chair,  and  to  a 
Professorial  Fellowship  at  Tri- 
nity College,  270  ;  letter  to  Dr 
Sidgwick,  271,  272  ;  becomes 
President  of  the  Hellenic  So- 
ciety, 273  ;  visit  to  the  Tenny- 
sons,  273  ;  invited  to  become 
Rede  Lecturer,  274  ;  his  essay 
on  Erasmus  for  the  Rede  Lec- 
ture, 275  ;  is  asked  to  give  the 
"  Percy  TurnbuU  "  lectures  at 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
276 ;  receives  an  honorary 
Degree  from  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity, and  an  honorary  De- 
gree of  D.C.L.  from  Oxford, 
276  ;  invited  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  Parliament,  277, 
278  ;  is  nominated  and  re- 
turned, 279 ;  second  visit  to 
America,  280  ;  maiden  speech 
in  Parliament,  280  ;  re-elected 
to  Parliament,  281  ;  work  on 
the  Electra,  281  ;  addresses 
the  University  Extension  So- 
ciety, 282  ;  speaks  at  the 
Albert  Hall  on  the  Character- 
istic Qualities  and  Recuperative 
Power  of  the  National  Churchy 
283,  284  ;  addresses  a  meeting 
at  Cambridge  against  the 
Home  Rule  Bill,  284  ;  delivers 
the  inaugural  address  at  meet- 
ing of  Local  Lecturers,  284  ; 
finishes  another  volume  of  his 
Sophocles,  284  ;  elected  a 
member  of  the  Governing  Body 
of  Charterhouse,  288  ;  is  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Secondary 
Education,  288,  289 ;  speech 
in  the  debate  on  Mr  Asquith's 
Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill, 
290  ff. ;  other  speeches  on  the 


same  subject,  301  ;  speaks  in 
the  House  on  the  Cambridge 
Corporation  Bill,  301,  302  ;  his 
essay  on  Lord  Tennyson  for 
Mr  T.  Humphry  Ward's  Eng- 
lish Poets^  302  ;  work  on  Ajax^ 
302  ;  writes  a  paper  for  the 
Institute  of  Journalists,  302  ; 
elected  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries, 305  ;  speeches  in  the 
debate  on  the  Scotch  Univer- 
sity Commission  Ordinances, 
and  on  the  Welsh  Church 
Disestablishment  Bill,  305  ; 
long  illness  of,  306  ;  moves  an 
amendment  on  the  Welsh  Bill, 
308  ;  attends  meeting  of  the 
British  School  at  Athens  in  St 
James's  Palace,  308,  309  ;  re- 
election to  Parliament,  309  ; 
severe  attack  of  illness,  309  ; 
goes  to  Aix-les- Bains,  309 ; 
becomes  President  of  the 
Teachers'  Guild,  310  ;  address 
at  the  annual  conference  of  the 
Guild,  310,  311  ;  speaks  on 
behalf  of  the  East  London 
Church  Fund,  311,  312;  sup- 
ports Sir  John  Gorst's  Educa- 
tion Bill,  313,  314  ;  is  elected 
a  member  of  The  Club^  3^5  ; 
elected  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Senate,  316  ;  becomes 
chairman  of  the  Joint  Com- 
mittee of  Associations  in- 
terested in  Secondary  Educa- 
tion, 316  ;  receives  a  deputation 
of  the  Church  Reform  League, 
316  ;  spends  Christmas  vaca- 
tion at  Monte  Carlo,  317  ff.; 
speech  on  the  Voluntary 
Schools'  Grant  Bill,  319,  320; 
supports  the  Women's  Suffrage 
Bill,  320  ;  chairman  of  Burials 
Committee,  323  ;  drafts  an 
address  to  the  Queen,  323 ;  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  the  Lon- 
don University  Commission, 
323  ;  work  on  Sophocles,  324 ; 
visit  to  Somerhill,  324  ; 
member  of  the  Standing  Com- 


Index 


495 


mittee  on  Law,  326  ;  speaks  at 
a  meeting  of  Church  Defence 
Committee,  326,  327  ;  speech 
on  the  Finance  Bill,  331  ;  visit 
to  Portsmouth  dockyard,  332  ; 
attends  meeting  at  Toynbee 
Hall,  333  ;  is  present  at  meet- 
ing of  the  Charterhouse 
General  Board,  335  ;  becomes 
a  member  of  an  Educational 
Committee  of  the  National 
Society,  339 ;  speaks  at  the 
Church  Congress  at  Bradford, 
339  ff.  ;  invited  to  give  the 
Romanes  Lecture,  341  ;  article 
on  Greek  Literature  for  Greek 
Aids,  342  ;  made  Professor  of 
Ancient  History  at  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Arts,  343  ;  ap- 
pointed Fellow  in  London 
University,  344  ;  speaks  at  a 
Conference  on  the  Church's 
Mission,  344 ;  and  at  that  of  the 
National    Union    of  Teachers, 

344  ;  leases  a  flat  at  Whitehall 
Court,  345  ;  a  member  of  a 
deputation  to  the  Archbishops, 

345  ;  delivers  the  Romanes 
Lecture,  346  ;  speaks  in  favour 
of  the  Board  of  Education 
Bill,  347  ;  presents  the  prizes 
at  St  Olave's  School,  347,  348  ; 
visit  to  Mr  Andrew  Carnegie, 
348  ;  speaks  at  the  Union  So- 
ciety in  favour  of  a  War  Fund, 
349 ;  a  member  of  a  deputation 
to  the  Home  Secretary,  350  ; 
present  at  a  meeting  concern- 
ing the  formation  of  a  British 
Academy,  350  ;  speaks  on  the 
Burials  Bill,  35 1  ;  opens  debate 
on  the  new  Education  Code, 
352  ;  knighthood,  352  ff.  ;  a 
member  of  the  Consultative 
Committee  to  the  Board  of 
Education,  354  ;  introduces  a 
Bill  to  amend  the  Medical 
Acts,  Lord  Monkswell's  Copy- 
right Bill,  and  a  Bill  for  reform- 
ing the  constitution  of  Convo- 
cation, 355  ;  furnishes  notes 
for    an    election    poster,    355  ; 


composes  a  lecture  on  Mac- 
aulay,  355,  356;  attends  the 
Congress  of  Higher  Education 
at  Paris,  355  ;  re-elected  to 
Parliament,  357  ;  re-elected 
member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Senate,  357  ;  on  the  death  of 
the  Queen,  writes  addresses  of 
condolence  and  congratulation, 
357  ff.  ;  elected  chairman  of 
the  Church  Parliamentary 
Committee,  360  ;  appointed  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Irish  University 
Education,  360  ;  takes  part  in 
the  ninth  Jubilee  of  Glasgow 
University,  360,  361  ;  composes 
some  Greek  elegiacs  for  the 
occasion,  and  some  other 
Greek  verses  for  the  "Muster 
Roll  of  Angus,"  361  ;  presides 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Modern 
Languages  Association,  361  ; 
speaks  at  the  Hellenic  Society 
annual  meeting,  362  ;  a  mem- 
ber of  a  deputation  to  Mr 
Balfour  about  the  Education 
Bill,  362  ff.  ;  speech  on  the 
Bill,  364,  365  ;  letter  on  the 
inscription  for  the  Coinage, 
367,  368  ;  attends  the  meetings 
of  the  Irish  University  Com- 
mission, 369,  370  ;  presides  at 
the  British  School  at  Athens 
meeting,  370 ;  address  on 
"  The  Educational  Policy  of 
the  Unionist  Party,"  370 ;  on 
the  Riviera,  370,  371  ;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council  of  the 
British  Academy,  372  ;  a 
member  of  the  Victoria  Uni- 
versity Committee,  374 ;  speaks 
on  national  education,  374  ; 
speeches  on  Mr  Balfour's  Edu- 
cation Bill,  374  ff.  ;  at  the  in- 
stallation of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Welsh  University  at  Carnar- 
von, 376 ;  there  receives  an 
honorary  Degree,  376  ;  attends 
meeting  of  the  Court  of  Vic- 
toria University  at  Manchester, 


496 


Index 


yjd ;  speech  at  the  Bodleian 
Tercentenary,  377  ff.  ;  speaks 
on  the  third  reading  of  the 
Education  Bill,  381,  382;  letter 
on  securing  the  presence  of 
women  on  Education  Com- 
mittees, 383,  384 ;  elected  a 
Trustee  of  the  British  Museum, 
384  ;  elected  a  member  of  the 
Standing  Committee,  385 ;  in- 
troduces the  Addenbrooke's 
Hospital  Bill,  385  ;  portrait  of,  to 
be  painted  for  Trinity  College, 

385,  386 ;  attends  a  Congress 
of  Historical  Studies  at  Rome, 

386,  387;  stays  at  Milan,  387; 
goes  to  the  inauguration  of  the 
Memorial  Cloister  at  Charter- 
house, 387;  speech  at,  388  fif.; 
portrait  painted  by  Sir  George 
Reid  for  Trinity  College,  392, 
393 ;  receives  the  diploma  and 
insignia  of  Commander  of  the 
Order  of  the  Saviour,  393; 
letter  on  Fiscal  Reform,  395  ff. ; 
is  present  at  a  meeting  of 
Trinity  College  Mission  at 
Camberwell,  398  ;  attends  the 
meeting  of  the  International 
Association  of  Academies,  399; 
address  at  the  25th  anniversary 
of  the  Hellenic  Society,  400  ; 
letter  to  Hon.  Arthur  Elliot,  on 
Free  Trade,  404;  elected  Vice- 
President  of  the  Education 
Section  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion, 405 ;  elected  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Numismatic  Society, 
405  ;  speaks  in  defence  of  the 
Greek  Cjuestion  at  Cambridge, 
406 ;  speech  at  a  Church  Emer- 
gency League  meeting,  406, 
407 ;  presides  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Carlton  Club,  409;  takes 
the  chair  at  Professor  Mayor's 
birthday  meeting  at  St  John's, 

410,  411;  writes  an  Epilogue 
for  the  Jubilee  celebration  of 
the   Amateur    Dramatic    Club, 

411,  412;  Order  of  Merit  con- 
ferred upon,  413;  drafts  Latin 
address     for     Professor     Mi- 


chaelis'  70th  birthday,  414;  let- 
ter on  the  defeat  of  the  Govern- 
ment, 415,  416;  work  at  his 
edition  of  Bacchylides,  418 ; 
writes  his  address  for  the 
British  Association  meeting  at 
Capetown,  418  ;  sails  for  South 
Africa,  419;  arrival  at  Capetown, 
421  ;  receives  honorary  Degree 
from  the  Cape  University,  421  ; 
address  at  Johannesburg,  422  ; 
illness  of,  on  returning  from 
South  Africa,  423,  424;  speaks 
at  the  Mansion  House,  424 ; 
death  and  burial  of,  424,  425; 
verse  on,  by  Ernest  Myers, 
425  ;  inscription  to,  in  Trinity 
College  Chapel,  426 

J  ebb,  Robert,  father  of  Richard 
Claverhouse  J  ebb,  7,  9;  death 
of,  261 

Jebb,  Samuel,  2,  3 

Jebb,  Sir  Joshua,  37 

Jebb,  Sir  Richard,  Bart.,  Phy- 
sician to  George  III,  2,  4 

Jebbs  of  WoodboroLigh,  Notting- 
hamshire, I 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  276 

Johnson,  Dr,  dining  club  founded 
by,  315 

Joicrnal  of  Hellemc  Studies^  pro- 
posal to  issue,  216  ff.;  first 
volume  published,  229 

Journalists,  Institute  of,  meets  at 
Cambridge,  302 

Jowett,  Dr,  Master  of  Balliol 
College,  on  Jebb's  edition  of 
Oedipus  Tyrannus^  250,  251  ; 
death  of,  2*86,  287 

Kelvin,  Lord  (Sir  William  Thom- 
son),  180 

Kennedy,  Dr,  Regius  Professor 
of  Greek,  death  of,  266 

Killarney,  172  ff. 

Kretschner,  Fraulein,  pension  of, 
90 

Leighton,  Stanley,  M.P.,  on  the 
death  of  Arthur  Trevor  J  ebb,  303 

Lewes,  Mrs  (George  Eliot),  155, 
156 


Index 


497 


Lightfoot,  Dr,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
20,  25,  34 ;  funeral  sermon  on 
Dr  Whewell,  Master  of  Trinity, 
%%  84;  Jebb's  friendship  with, 
119;   death  of,  273 

Lincolnshire,  Fens  of,  drained  by 
Jacob  de  Witt,  2 

Liquor  Traffic,  views  on,  125,  126 

Literary  Society,  226 

Little-Go,  32,  34 

London,  IBishop  of  (Dr  Creighton), 
death  of,  354 

London  University,  Commission 
appointed  to  consider  the  re- 
constitution  of,  323 ;  London 
University  Bill  carried,  332 ; 
statutes  of,  351 

Longfellow,  Hyperion^  162 

Lushington,  Dr,  179,   180 

Lyttelton,  Mr,  Headmaster  of 
Eton,  recollections  of,  on  Jebb's 
work  on  the  Commission  on 
Secondary  Education,  289 

Macaulay,  Lord,  inscription  for 
his  statue  composed  by  Jebb, 
198,  199 

Macmillan,  George  A.,  215  fF. 

Mayo,  Lord,  assassination  of,  126 

Mayor,  Professor,  meeting  at 
St  John's  in  honour  of,  410,  411 

Medical  Acts,  Bill  to  amend,  355 

Michaelis,  Professor,  letter  from, 
414 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  123 

Milton  contrasted  with  Dante, 
113,  114;  translation  of  an 
Italian  sonnet  of,  132,  133 

Modern   Languages  Association, 

Mohammedanism,  reinvigoration 

of,  126 
Monkswell,  Lord,  Copyright  Bill 

of,  355 
Monro,  Dr  D.  B.,  229 
Monte  Carlo,  317  ff. 
Morris,  William,   149,   150 
Munro,   Dr   H.  A.  J.,  on   Jebb's 

edition   of  Oedipus   Tyrannus^ 

250;  death  of,  259 
Myers,  Ernest,  verse  by,  on  Jebb's 

death,  425 


Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  76,  81 ;  letter 
from,  on  Jebb's  book  of  Trans- 
lations, 144,  145;  "Pindaric 
Ode"  of,  153,  154;  interest  in 
spiritualism,  167;  review  by, 
171  ;  death  of,  357 

Newman's  Apologia^  104,  105 

Newton,  C.  F.  (Sir  Charles  New- 
ton), Keeper  of  Greek  and  Ro- 
man Antiquities  in  the  British 
Museum,  216;   death  of,  304 

Newton,  Professor,  of  Oxford, 
letter  from,  220 

Nichol,  Professor,  202;  sonnet 
by,  213 

Nichols,  Mr,  Literary  Anecdotes^  i 

Odysseus,  etymology  of  the  name 

of,  150 
Order  of  Merit,  413 
Osborne,  Lord  and  Lady  Francis, 

95,  95  n. 

Pattison,  Mr  and  Mrs  Mark,  163  ff. 

Perceval,  Charles  Spencer,  25 

Perowne,  Dr  E.  H.,  Master  of 
Corpus  Christi  College,  letter 
from,  asking  Jebb  to  stand  for 
Parliament,  277,  278 ;  inter- 
view with  Jebb  as  to  accepting 
knighthood,  353 

Perugia,  visit  to,  200,  201 

Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  Har- 
vard, 251 

Philae,  67,  68 

Philomathic  Debating  Society, 
Edinburgh,  Jebb's  address  to 
the,  207 

"  Placida,  the  Christian  martyr," 
a  dramatic  cantata,  130,  131 

Porson  Scholarship,  25 

Prizes,   19 

Public  Oratorship,  97  ff. 

Raphael's  picture  of  St  Cecilia, 
description  of,  152,  153 

Reay,  Lord,  President  of  the 
British  Academy,  372  ;  tribute 
of,  to  the  memory  of  Jebb,  372, 
373;  alludes  to  the  Order  of 
Merit,  413,  4I4 


498 


Index 


Rede  Lecturer,  Jebb  appointed, 

274  ff.. 
Reid,   Sir   George,    President   of 

the  Scottish  Academy,  portrait 

of  Jebb   painted  by,  386,  392, 

393,  401,  402,  405 
Rendell,    Rev.    Dr   (Headmaster 

of  Charterhouse),  78 
Reynolds,    Caroline    Lane,   mar- 
riage of,  177 
Reynolds,  Dr  John,  177 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  dining  club 

founded  by,  315 
Ritualism,  89 
Roberts,  General  Sir   Frederick, 

227 
Roberts,  R.  D.,  on  Jebb's  lecture 

on  Macaulay,  356 
Robertson,  Dr  James,  letter  from, 

368 
Robinson,  Canon  Armitage  (Dean 

of  Westminster),  letter  from,  344 
Romanes  Lecture,  341 

St  Asaph's,  Bishop  of,  see  Horsley, 

Samuel 
St  Columba's  College,  Rathfarn- 

ham,  14 
St  Martin's  Cathedral,  Tours,  88 
St    Olave's    School,    Southwark, 

347 

Schiller,  remarks  on,  133  ff. ;  con- 
trasted with  Goethe,  136 

Schliemann,  Dr,  242,  244 

Scotsman^  challenge  of  Professor 
Blackie  in,  222  ff. 

Scottish  Universities,  controversy 
on  reform  of,  235  ff. 

Scottish  University  Ordinances 
Bill,  280,  305 

Secondary  Education,  Royal  Com- 
mission on,  288,  289 ;  Report  of, 

303,  309 
Sedgwick,    Adam,    Professor    of 
Geology,  death  and  funeral  of, 

145  ff- 

Seeley,  Professor,  85,  108,  109 

Selborne,  Lord,  8 

Shaw,  Principal  H.  S,,  note  on 
Jebb's  address  at  Johannes- 
burg, 423  n. 

Sherard,  Lady  Dorothy,  i  n. 


Sidgwick,  Professor  Henry,  death 
of,  356 

Sophocles'  Ajax  and  Electra^ 
school  editions  of,  92,  93  ;  first 
volume  of  large  edition  {Oedipus 
Tyrannus)  published,  250,  251  ; 
the  Oedipus  Coloneus  finished, 
261  ;  second  edition  of  the  Oe- 
dipus Tyrannus,  262,  and  Sup- 
plement, 427 

Spencer,  Earl,  letter  from,  on  the 
Victoria  University,  373 

Spiritualism,  Jebb's  views  on,  167, 
168 

Springfield,  230,  231 

Stanford,  Sir  Charles  Villiers,  148 

Stanley,  Dean,  of  Westminster, 
preaches  funeral  sermon  on 
Professor  Adam  Sedgwick,  147 

Stanley,  Mary,  3 

Stanley,  William,  3 

Stephen,  Leslie,  letter  from,  227 

Stokes,  Sir  George,  279,  280 

Storr,  Dr,  letter  from,  311 

Swainson,  Dr,  Master  of  Christ's 
College,  230 

Taine,  English  Positivism,  1 2 1  ff. 
Teachers,  National  Union  of,  313, 

344 
Tennyson,  Hallam,  156,  157,  166, 

Tennyson,  Jebb's  description  of, 
94 ;  In  Memo7'iam,  116;  at 
Cambridge,  166  ;  Jebb's  visit  to, 
169;  Mrs  Tennyson  described, 
1 69  ;  Tennyson's  Deineter  dedi- 
cated to  Jebb,  274 

Thackeray,  Miss,  141,  142 

Theophrastus,  Jebb's  edition  of, 
102 

Thompson,  H.  Y,,  offers  an  Ameri- 
can Lectureship  to  the  Univer- 
sity, 81 

Thompson,  Professor  W.  H.,  Mas- 
ter of  Trinity,  82,  83;  letters 
from,  in  connexion  with  the  in- 
scription for  Macaulay's  statue, 
198,  199 

Thomson,  Sir  C.  Wyville,  227 

Thomson,  Sir  William  (Lord  Kel- 
vin), 1 80 


Index 


499 


Torkington,  Rev.  John,  i  n. 

Transvaal  War,  349 

Trevelyan,  Sir  George,  57,  57  n., 
58,  95,  96,  125,  206 

Trinity  College  Mission  at  Cam- 
berwell,  398 

Tuckwell,  Rev.  W.,  15,  16 

Turnbull,  Mr  and  Mrs  Lawrence, 
lectureship  in  poetry  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University  en- 
dowed by,  276 

Tyrrell,  Professor,  letter  from,  on 
the  death  of  J  ebb's  father,  261 

University  Extension  Society, 
Jebb's  address  to  the,  282,  283 ; 
lecture  by  Jebb  on  Macaulay 
dehvered  to  the,  356 

Vaughan,  Dr,  83,  83  n. 
Veitch,  Professor,  202 
Verrall,  Dr,   on   Jebb's   interpre- 
tation  of  Sophocles,  262,  and 
Supplement,  427 
Victoria,  Queen,  death  of,  357 
Victoria  University,  373,  376 
Voluntary    Schools'    Grant    Bill, 
319,  320 

Wahhabees,  126 

Wales,  Prince  of,  installation  of, 
as  Chancellor  of  the  Welsh 
University  at  Carnarvon,  376 

Wales,  Prince  of  (King  Edward), 
illness  and  recovery  of,  112, 
113;  Thanksgiving  Service  for 


recovery  of,  126  ff. ;  interest 
of,  in  establishing  the  British 
School  at  Athens,  248  ;  presides 
at  meeting  of  the  School  in  St 
James's  Palace,  308 

Walker,  John  C,  letter  from,  311, 
312 

Walpole,  the  Rt  Honourable 
Spencer,  letter  from,  226 

Ward,  T.  Humphry,  English 
Poets,  302 

Warren,  Herbert,  President  of 
Magdalen    College,   letters   to, 

307,  341 

Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill, 
Jebb's  speeches  on  the,  290  ff., 
305,  306,  308 

Westcott  elected  Regius  Professor 
of  Divinity,  102 

Westminster  Play,  59 

Whewell,  Dr,  Master  of  Trinity 
College,  29,  30,  79;  death  of, 
82  ;  funeral  of,  83 

Wilberforce,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, death  of,  165 

Williams,  J.  Carvell,  letter  from, 
328,  329 

Williamson,  R.  P.  G.,  on  Jebb's 
work  at  Glasgow,  188  ff. 

Winter  of  1878-9,  severity  of,  213 

Women  on  Education  Commit- 
tees, letter  on,  383,  384 

Women's  Suffrage  Bill,  320 

Woodborough,  J  ebbs  of,  i 

Wordsworth,  Ode  on  Inthnatio7is 
of  Im?nortality,  106,  107 


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